


A Sadder and a Wiser Woman

by Apathetic_Abstract_Apotheosis



Series: The Wandering One [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anti-Faunus Racism (RWBY), Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Faunus Weiss Schnee, Fluff and Angst, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:20:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 42
Words: 142,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24249448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Apathetic_Abstract_Apotheosis/pseuds/Apathetic_Abstract_Apotheosis
Summary: Team RWBY have reunited at last and gained a powerful ally, now that they're together again, their quest should be easy, right? But as Weiss will learn, it won't be nearly that simple, knowledge is often just as much a burden as it is a blessing and things can always get worse.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Jaune Arc/Lie Ren, Jaune Arc/Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie, Jaune Arc/Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie, Neopolitan/Ruby Rose (RWBY), Neopolitan/Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee, Neopolitan/Weiss Schnee, Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee
Series: The Wandering One [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1500515
Comments: 451
Kudos: 460





	1. Chapter 1

Weiss wasn’t sure how long the five of them spent there on the floor of Haven Academy’s main hall, hugging each other as though they would never let go. But they couldn’t stay like that forever, and were eventually brought back to reality by a loud cough.

“Hate to break up this lovely reunion, but maybe we should take it somewhere that isn’t an active crime scene.” The girls looked up and were surprised to see several members of the Mistral police force coming into the room and beginning to examine things. “And I think it would be best if a few things didn’t end up on the public record.” Qrow gestured with the gold and blue object Yang had returned with.

Grumbling quietly to herself, Weiss reluctantly got to her feet, helping Neo up as well, the diminutive girl leaning heavily against her. Looking around the hall, Weiss noticed two other people had joined Kali and Ghira, who were both waiting a respectful distance away. It took her a few moments to recognise the young woman who stood beside Sun, and her eyes narrowed suspiciously at the chameleon Faunus.

“Is Oscar alright?” Ruby’s question caught Weiss’ attention and she turned to see Qrow picking up the young boy from the floor, ready to carry him out.

“He’ll be fine, I hope. Just knackered from the fighting.”

“He’s not the only one!” Nora piped up as she, Ren and Jaune joined the group. “I actually feel kinda tired for once.” With the group assembled, they started to make their way towards the entrance and the small group of Faunus. As they did so, a thought occurred to Weiss.

“What about Lionheart? What happened to him?”

“He fled, unsurprisingly.” Qrow grumbled as he led the way, Ruby by his side and his grim glower ensuring their path was unimpeded. “Always out to save his own skin first.”

“Shouldn’t we track him down? He might have information we could use.” Jaune asked, out of all of them he looked the most shaken by the fight and Weiss couldn’t help but notice the blood still staining his hands.

“I’m sure the cops will be able to handle a coward like Leo. We’ve done enough for tonight.” Several of the group nodded in agreement, including Weiss. She was dead tired and all she wanted to do right now was collapse in bed with her girlfriends and sleep.

As they passed the Belladonnas, they approached the group, bringing Qrow to a halt as he regarded Ghira. “I suppose we have you to thank for dealing with the White Fang and their bombs whilst we were otherwise engaged, Chief Belladonna.”

“That’s my child you should be thanking, not me. They’re the one who got everyone organised, I’m just here to provide some more ‘official’ authority.” Ghira rumbled, smiled proudly down at Blake who flushed and flattened their ears in embarrassment.

“Daaaaaad.” They whined reproachfully and received a soft chuckle in response.

“Always modest…” He laughed quietly before returning his attention to Qrow. “Would you mind if my wife and I accompanied you back to your accommodations? We can arrange our own, of course, and I imagine Blake would rather stay with their team, but we’d rather not leave them just yet, and I don’t think Sun or Ilia want to either.” The two younger Faunus who’d followed behind the elder Belladonnas nodded in agreement.

“Fine, fine… The more the merrier, I suppose.” He rolled his eyes and continued out of the building, the delegation from Menagerie joining the group.

“It’s good to see you again, Kali.” Weiss told Kali as she fell in step with her and Neo.

“It’s good to see you too, Weiss. Though I do wish it were in better circumstances.” She looked out sadly across the courtyard as they left the hall. There were still several members of the Faunus militia milling around as more police officers were arresting the incapacitated members of the White Fang.

“I can’t believe so many Faunus followed Adam…” Weiss wondered out loud as they walked and she felt Neo shrug against her.

“I can only speculate as to why they would.” Kali spoke quietly, tearing her eyes away from the scene to look at Weiss. “I’m sure a significant number followed out of fear after the coup, and there are bound to be some who believed Adam really did want to create a better world for us and not just for himself.” The older woman sighed sadly, shaking her head. “I really am going to have my work cut out for me.”

“Work?” Weiss her head at Kali and she gave Weiss a weary smile.

“Since Ghira’s temporarily taking over the White Fang for the foreseeable future, I’m going to be going back to my old position as a counsellor for members, and I suspect I’ll have a lot to do convincing some members of just how toxic Adam was. But my sessions with Ilia have been promising, so I hope others will accept my help.” Kali looked away briefly to watch Ilia, who hovered awkwardly between Blake and Sun as the former talked quietly with Yang.

“I was going to ask about that, actually. Last I remember, she’d stabbed Sun, advocated against us and taunted Blake over Sienna.” Kali let out a deep sigh and shook her head at Weiss’ bluntness.

“It’s rather complicated and I can’t tell you the details, patient confidentiality, but she’s been through a lot and didn’t get the help she needed at the time, so her issues were left to fester and were exploited by Adam.” Weiss frowned, looking over at Ilia herself as the young woman struck up a conversation with Sun, though she still kept looking over at Blake and Yang every so often.

“For what it’s worth, I believe she does want to make up for her actions with the White Fang. It’s thanks to her the bombs were all disarmed.” Kali’s smile shifted into something more akin to a smirk as she continued. “And besides, I would’ve figured you’d be the first person to advocate for the rehabilitation of former criminals.”

Weiss felt her cheeks heat just a little as Neo shook with silent laughter from beside her as she leaned around to talk to Kali. _‘I missed you, Kali.’_

“I missed you too, Neo.” The older woman chuckled, giving the pastel girl a once over, her eyes stopping on the bloodied hole in Neo’s corset and widening in shock. “Oh my… What happened?”

_‘Got a little impaled. All patched up now though.’_ Neo tried to show off she was indeed no longer injured, but winced in pain instead. _‘Okay, maybe not. Still a little tender.’_

“Süße, you shouldn’t do that.” Weiss chided, moving in to support her girlfriend. “Who knows how well you’re fixed, I still don’t know what Jaune did to heal you.” The group had left the academy grounds by now and were making their way through the darkened streets to the house.

_‘Something about amplifying my Aura? I wasn’t really paying attention, I was kinda delirious and then I didn’t stick around for an explanation after.’_ Neo shrugged and winced a little again as Kali gave Weiss a curious look.

“Pet names? Does that mean what I think it means?” Weiss sighed at the teasing lilt in Kali’s question.

“Yes, Neo and I are dating now. We worked things out with Ruby. There were a few… teething troubles at first, but it’s going well now.”

“I’m happy for you, both of you.” Both Weiss and Neo blushed at the note of pride in the older Faunus’ tone. “And I’m very glad it worked out between the three of you.”

“Thank you.” Weiss continued to blush until a thought occurred to her. “Actually, Ruby, could you come over here, please?” The girl in question looked quizzically over her shoulder at them and fell back to walk with them after finishing her conversation with Qrow.

“Yes, Weiss?” She regarded Kali curiously as the older woman’s smile grew wider, recognition sparking in her eyes.

“Ruby, this is Kali Belladonna. She was kind enough to let me and Neo stay with her on Menagerie.” Ruby’s eyes lit up and a wide grin split her face which morphed into an embarrassed flush as Weiss continued. “Kali, this is Ruby Rose, the best scythe-wielder and team leader on Remnant, and my girlfriend.” 

“You’re Blake’s Mom! Weiss told me about you a few times and how much you helped her!” Ruby chirped, bouncing along as they approached the house.

“And I’ve heard quite a bit about you from Weiss and Blake. It’s good to finally meet you.” Kali then leaned over to Weiss and said to her in a stage-whisper. “She’s just like you said she was, you’re a very lucky girl, Weiss.”

Both Weiss and Ruby turned bright red and Neo burst into more paroxysms of silent laughter as Weiss mumbled out a reply. “I tell myself that every single day.”

The group came to a halt outside the house and the elder Belladonnas separated from the group, Kali giving Weiss a comforting pat on the shoulder as she went. “We’ll take our leave here, but I hope you won’t mind us paying a visit tomorrow. There’s a great deal that needs to be discussed about tonight’s events.” Qrow made some nondescript noises in agreement with Ghira’s words as he fumbled with his keys to the house, passing the still unconscious Oscar over to Jaune.

“You don’t mind if the three of us stay here tonight?” Blake asked tentatively, gesturing between themself, Sun and Ilia.

“Pretty sure at least one of you’s going to have to crash on a sofa, but sure, whatever.” Nodding appreciatively, Blake trotted over to their parents and was pulled into a tight hug by their father, Kali joining a moment later.

“I’m so proud of you, Blake.” Weiss heard Ghira mutter to his child before releasing them. With a wave of farewell, he and Kali turned and left the motley group as Qrow finally managed to wrestle the door open and led the way inside.

They all trooped into the house, Nora slamming the door shut behind them, and made their way into the downstairs living room, where they all proceeded to collapse onto the sofas and chairs with various groans of relief.

“You know, that actually went rather well.” Nora spoke up from where she was, collapsed across both Jaune and Ren’s laps. “I mean, we won, we didn’t lose anybody this time, Jaune finally unlocked his semblance and now we’ve got a super powerful magical lady on our side!”

“A what?” Sun looked around the room in confusion, a look that was mirrored by Blake and Ilia as Qrow groaned loudly.

“Could we maybe not go blurting stuff like that out?” He grumbled, pulling out his flask and taking a long pull from it.

“I do have several questions that I’d appreciate some answers to.” Blake pointed out, narrowing their eyes at Qrow, who returned their gaze with a dark look of his own.

“And they do deserve them, Uncle Qrow.” Ruby piped up from beside Neo, the pair having snuggled up together on the sofa beside Weiss. “We’re being honest and trusting people, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah. I remember, kiddo.” The older man continued to gripe and slouch in his chair. “Not now though, we’re all exhausted and Belladonnas are coming tomorrow, and you all know how much I hate having to repeat myself.” With a grunt of effort, Qrow got to his feet and stretched out. “I’m gonna get cleaned up and turn in, you lot can sort out where these three are sleeping. We’ll talk after breakfast.”

With a dismissive wave, Qrow sloped off upstairs, leaving the teens to their own devices. They all exchanged awkward glances at the rather abrupt exit of Qrow, until the silence was finally broken by Ruby.

“Sooooooo, I think we’ve only got the one free bed and it’s in Yang’s room.” Ruby’s grinned sheepishly at the three newcomers and Blake in particular.

“We’ve got a spare one as well.” Ren added matter-of-factly as he casually played with Nora’s hair. “So that’s two beds unless any of you three are willing to share…?” His eyes flitted between Blake and Yang, who were sitting oddly close to one another, but quickly shuffled apart, seemingly only just noticing they had been that close when Ren mentioned it.

“I’ll be fine sleeping on a couch, I’ve slept on far worse and I’ll probably keep whoever I’m bunking with up. I’m a pretty restless sleeper.” Sun spoke up, trying to draw everyone’s attention away from the awkwardness emanating from Blake and Yang.

“Great, I’ll get you some blankets.” Jaune carefully shimmied out from underneath Nora’s legs and was about to head upstairs when he was stopped by a call from Ren.

“I suggest you wash your hands first.” Jaune paused and looked down at his hands awkwardly.

“Oh, right, yeah. I should do that.” He raised a hand about to rub at the back of his head in embarrassment, but caught himself just in time and scurried out of the room whilst Ruby turned her attention to Blake and Ilia.

“Sooooooo, who wants to bunk with Yang?” Neither of them answered, Ilia’s gaze flickered between Blake and Yang as though waiting for their cue whilst Blake remained silent and even curled in on themself under the scrutiny. Yang also looked incredibly conflicted about the decision, but ultimately was the first to speak up.

“I’ll bunk with Ilia, I’d rather not subject her to Nora so soon.” It was a weak excuse, but nobody called her out on it, although Nora did grumble something about being a ‘fucking delightful person to be around’.

“Great!” Ruby chirped, her smile a little too wide to be completely real. “There’s a couple of bathrooms upstairs if the three of you want to clean up before going to bed.” Then she looked over at the sofa where Jaune had laid Oscar to rest, the boy still passed out from exertion. “I guess Jaune will have to carry Oscar up to their room, I don’t think he’s waking up any time soon.”

Slowly, the group started to disperse, Yang getting up a little hastily and offering to show Ilia to their room. The pair left quickly, though that was more to do with Yang than Ilia and as they left, Blake followed Yang with their gaze, something almost wistful in their eyes.

“Neo, you should probably take a shower, get that blood cleaned off.” Weiss told her girlfriend, who smirked mischievously.

_‘Would you care to join me?’_ Weiss squawked in indignation as Neo waggled her eyebrows and Nora burst out laughing across the room.

“Neo!” Weiss could feel a heavy blush filling her cheeks and she tried to get up and stalk off, but was stopped by Neo grabbing her by the arm and pulling her back down onto the sofa.

_‘Nooooooo, don’t go. I’m sorry, Snowflake.’_ Neo apologised, although there was still mirth in her eyes as Weiss huffed in mock irritation.

“Um, Neo would you mind not taking a shower just yet? There’s something I wanted to talk to you and Weiss about, in private.” Frowning in confusion at Ruby’s request, the pair nonetheless nodded and followed Ruby towards the stairs, saying their good nights to the remaining teens and heading upstairs and into their room. Once inside, they took the opportunity to disarm themselves before Weiss and Neo sat down on one of the beds whilst Ruby paced in front of them, wringing her hands nervously.

“What did you want to tell us, Liebling?” Weiss asked after Ruby didn’t say anything for a long moment.

“I’m trying to work out exactly how to say what I want to say!” She protested indignantly, though her hands continued their anxious motions. “I need to get this right.” With a frown, Neo swiftly stood up and caught hold of Ruby’s hands and stilling them.

For a brief moment Neo took her hands away to talk to Ruby. _‘Just tell us, please. You’ll get it right no matter what you say, Little Red.’_ Ruby took a deep breath and nodded, closing her eyes in thought for a few seconds before opening them again, something unidentifiable gleaming in them.

“Okay, okay... For the last few months I’ve been having these… feelings… for you, Neo.” Weiss couldn’t see Neo’s face properly from where she was sitting, but she knew the pastel girl’s eyes were widening in shock.

“I didn’t know what to do about it. The only time I’ve felt like this before was with Weiss, and I still love her so very much, and now I like you as well, but I was sure there was no way you could like me back.” Ruby looked away sadly, only to have Neo catch her chin and turn it back to look at her.

_‘Why not? When Weiss and I started dating I said I thought you were pretty and wanted to give dating between us a try.’_ It took Weiss a few moments to understand what Neo was saying from her angle off to the side. She was still trying to wrap her head around what was happening.

“I thought you were just saying that to be nice or something.” Ruby murmured, letting her head hang and reaching up to grasp her bicep, like she did whenever she felt insecure. “And how could you like me like that? It’s my fault Roman’s dead. I took your brother away from you.” Ruby sniffed a little, which spurred Weiss into action, the Faunus standing up and walking over to hold her girlfriend in comfort.

_‘Ruby… I have never blamed you for what happened to Roman. Never.’_ Neo reassured Ruby, sadness tugging the corners of her mouth down into a frown. _‘It was his decision to follow Cinder and her fault that he got involved.’_ Neo let out a deep sigh, wrapping her arms around herself for comfort.

“But I’m the reason he got eaten. It’s all my fault. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry” Ruby’s head hung in guilt and sadness as Weiss hugged her harder, unsure of what else she could do.

_‘There was always going to be someone trying to stop The Fall, and it just happened to be you. Please don’t blame yourself. You were doing the right thing, Little Red.’_ There was a small sniffle from Ruby before she wormed her way out of Weiss’ grip and flung her arms around Neo, and buried her face in the shorter girl’s neck.

After a few moments, Ruby disengaged from the hug, wiping discreetly at her eyes as a thought occurred to Weiss. “Ruby, you said you’ve been feeling this way for a few months. Why are you telling us now?”

“I was just going to keep my feelings to myself since I was sure you wouldn’t return them.” Shuffling anxiously on the spot, Ruby avoided Neo’s curious gaze, her face red with embarrassment as she fiddled with the laces on her corset. “But after I saw you get hurt, I was so, so scared. I thought we were going to lose you, and I realised I didn’t want to keep it a secret anymore.”

She took a deep breath and looked up at Neo with a nervous smile. “I love you, Neo, the same way i love Weiss. Well, not exactly the same way, but it feels the same and-” Ruby’s ramble was suddenly cut off by Neo leaning up on tip-toe and pulling Ruby her down into a deep kiss. The brunette let out a small squeak of surprise that morphed into a quiet moan, her eyes slipping shut and her hands ceasing their fiddling and coming to rest on Neo’s waist.

It took a great deal of self-control for Weiss not to let out a moan of her own as she watched her girlfriends kiss, her teeth gnawing at her bottom lip and her wings flapping restlessly. She wasn’t entirely sure if this was real or if it was just a hallucination brought on by exhaustion.

After about a minute. Ruby and Neo broke apart, gasping for breath and smiling widely at one another, until Neo noticed Weiss watching.

_‘I think someone’s a little excited.’_ She smirked, drawing Ruby’s attention to Weiss, making her blush deeply at Ruby’s mischievous grin, though the brunette herself was rather flushed as well.

“Enjoy watching, Princess?” She teased lightly and pulled away from Neo to look at Weiss properly.

“I’m not dreaming, am I?”

_‘I think I’m the one who should be asking that, Snowflake. I’m not entirely convinced these aren’t my dying thoughts.’_ Both Weiss and Ruby frowned at Neo’s morbid joke.

“Please don’t joke about that.” Ruby nodded in agreement with Weiss’ request as she placed a hand on Neo’s shoulder. “I thought I was going to lose you…”

Frowning apologetically, Neo patted Weiss’ hand before releasing it to talk. _‘I’ll try not to, but I’m still processing it as well, and making light of it helps.’_ Several unidentifiable emotions swirled in Neo’s eyes as she spoke that belied a far greater depth of feeling about what had happened to her than she let on.

“I’m sorry…” Weiss murmured as she pulled Neo into a proper hug and buried her face in her multicoloured hair, breathing in the comforting scent of vanilla mixed with the tang of sweat from their exertions. A moment later, there was another presence in the hug as Ruby joined in comforting Neo.

Eventually, the group hug broke up and Weiss stretched and flexed her sore muscles and was reminded of how good a shower would feel. “Did either of you have anything else to say, or shall we go take our showers?”

“Um, I did actually have one last thing.” Ruby piped up timidly, her face turning red again as she trotted over to her side of the room’s desk and opened up one of the drawers, pulling out a cloth-wrapped package. “I’ve been working on this for a little while, just in case I ever got brave enough to tell you how I felt. Maybe if I’d given it to you sooner, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt...”

_‘None of that now, no use thinking about maybes.’_ Neo told Ruby sharply, the brunette nodding meekly and beginning to unwrap the package.

“Right… So I wanted to get you a kind of courting gift, but I didn’t know what I should do, so I asked Yang and she said to think of what I’d want to get, so I made this.” She finished unwrapping it and bashfully held out her gift to Neo. It was a beautifully ornate revolver with rose gold filigree designs that evoked rose vines wrapped around the barrel and a mother of pearl inlays on the handle.

“I call her Cacophony.” Ruby informed them as Neo reverently took the gun and held it up to the light to admire it. “It actually took me a while to get the fiddly wire bits right, I’ve never done artsy stuff like that on weapons before.” Carefully, Neo handed the revolver over to Weiss, a bright grin splitting her face before she turned back to Ruby.

_‘It’s perfect.’_ Ruby’s face was about as red as her cloak as she giggled nervously, toying with her hair.

“I’m glad you like it.” She mumbled bashfully as Neo took the gun back from Weiss and placed it on the desk. Still grinning widely, Neo skipped back to Ruby and hopped up to plant a brief kiss on her lips.

_‘I love it.’_ She assured Ruby as she trotted over to the chest of drawers and retrieved some clothes. _‘I’m going to take a shower and get this blood off me, see you in a bit!’_ With that, the pastel girl vanished from the room, blowing a kiss to Weiss and closing the door quietly behind her.

“We’re really doing this, then?” Weiss asked of nobody in particular, despite Ruby being the only other person in the room.

“Yeah, I guess we are.” Suddenly, Ruby pulled Weiss into a tight embrace and earned a shocked squeak from the Faunus. “Sorry I sort of sprung this on you without telling you.”

“It’s fine, Liebling, really.” Weiss petted her girlfriend’s hair softly. “I’m fine, better than fine actually. I don’t think there are words to describe how happy I feel right now.”

“I know, I think I feel the same.”

“Things really are different now. Cinder’s dead, Neo’s a maiden and now you’re dating her.” Weiss murmured, her petting morphing into a reassuring scritching that had Ruby humming in contentment. “Who knows what’s going to happen next.”

“I know, Princess. But it’ll work out, it always does and we’ve always got each other.” Smiling into Ruby’s shoulder, Weiss silently agreed with her. As long as they worked together, nothing could stop them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The hiatus is over and I'm back! And we are back with a fun one because Ruby and Neo finally got together. Full Strawberry Swirl is a go! We'll get some explanations for what happened during the battle later, for now I'm just gonna let these three be cute together, they deserve it and are going to need it with some of the things that are coming.
> 
> Also, I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and keeping me from posting this the moment it was finished. Lots of thanks too to the lovely [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and putting up with my moaning about taking breaks.


	2. Chapter 2

Weiss was awoken the next morning by a faint warm breeze tickling her face. Blinking her eyes open sleepily, The slumbering face of Neo came into view, and just behind that, Ruby’s face was buried in Neo’s hair, an adorable smile gracing her features.

After everything that had happened last night and in light of Ruby and Neo’s new relationship status, the three girls had decided not to split up to sleep as they usually did, and instead decided to all share a bed together. Their first attempt was not exactly successful, they’d all tried to cram themselves into one of the single beds in their room, reasoning that Weiss and Neo were small enough that they’d all fit. This attempt had ended with Ruby toppling out of the bed to land rather painfully on the floor, so that plan was abandoned.

The follow-up plan, which had ended up being successful, involved the three pushing one of the beds up against the other and covering the gap with spare bedding. It had ended up being rather comfortable, actually, with Ruby on the side up against the wall, Weiss on the other to give her wings enough room and Neo sandwiched in between the pair of them, both Ruby and Weiss having decided independently that Neo deserved the middle spot after nearly dying that evening.

The warm breeze came again and Weiss realised it was Neo’s breath. She’d shifted around in her sleep, so their faces were a mere inch apart. She looked so peaceful, a small smile tugging at the edges of her mouth as she squirmed occasionally in her sleep, the arctic fox plushie she’d won for Weiss clutched to her chest. Weiss remembered the first time she’d ended up in this position with Neo, back on their journey across Sanus. Just like back then, Weiss’ eyes raked down Neo’s form to rest on the scars adorning her neck and collarbones.

Neo still hadn’t explained the cause of her injury, but she was comfortable enough around Weiss that she didn’t feel the need to hide them when they were in private. Neo’s reticence didn’t really bother Weiss anymore. She’d come to the conclusion that Neo didn’t tell her not because she didn’t trust Weiss, but because the scars brought up bad memories for her, something Weiss could definitely relate to with her own concealed scars.

Thinking about it, they all had scars, really, even Ruby. She may not have been hurt physically like the rest of them, but she wore her heart on her sleeve, and the world was far too cruel to people like her. And now Neo had a new scar to join the rest. Weiss’ eyes drifted further down Neo’s body, the blankets having been kicked off sometime in the night due to the warmth their three bodies generated. The tanktop Neo had borrowed from Ruby had ridden up, exposing the still reddened and raised flesh where she’d been stabbed.

Silently, Weiss reached out to ghost her fingers across the puckered skin, whispering a quiet apology for not being able to stop Cinder from hurting her. Neo squirmed in her sleep at the gentle touch, shifting in Ruby’s embrace and making the younger woman frown and pull Neo tighter against her. Ruby’s frown softened back into a smile as Neo’s movements ceased and she sighed contentedly. It was all far too cute.

Rolling over carefully so as not to disturb the slumbering pair, Weiss fumbled around on the bedside table for her scroll. Eventually, her questing fingers found the device and she opened it up, scrolling through to the camera app. She hadn’t taken that many photos since arriving in Mistral, just a few new ones of Yang and Ruby. They’d both changed so much since Weiss had seen them last and she’d needed to document it, much like how she wanted to have a record of one of the most adorable things she’d ever seen. Rolling back to her sleeping girlfriends, Weiss took careful aim with her scroll, careful to get both women’s faces in the shot. She wondered whether she should also endeavour to keep Neo’s scarring out of the picture, but ultimately decided not to. She loved Neo, all of her.

Both Ruby and Neo stirred at the sound of the shutter as Weiss took the picture, Ruby opening her bleary eyes first and looking around in confusion for a moment before realising where she was.

“Mmph, mornin’, Weiss.” She mumbled, blinking the sleep out of her eyes and focusing on the scroll in Weiss’ hands. “What’s that for?”

“I’m preserving the moment.” Weiss turned the scroll around to show Ruby the picture she’d just taken and the younger woman squeaked and flushed. “You make a really cute couple.”

“Noooooo, you and Neo are far cuter together.” Ruby protested, still bright pink with embarrassment.

“I don’t think so, and I’ve got the proof right here.” Weiss teased back, waving the scroll, which Ruby tried to grab. Ruby’s attempts only ended in failure though, but her wild swings jolted Neo fully awake and she blinked her eyes open with a sleepy questioning look in them.

“Oops, sorry, Neo.” Still looking curiously between her girlfriends, Neo made a grabbing motion at Weiss, requesting her scroll.

‘Why’d you wake me up so early? I was having a great dream about the three of us and a  _ lot  _ of whipped cream. 😜😘😜’ Neo’s message was accompanied by a sleepily cheeky grin, which made Weiss and Ruby blush even deeper.

“Neooooooo.” Ruby whined as Weiss choked and struggled for words. “Don’t say stuff like that!”

‘Well, you shouldn’t have interrupted my dream, then.’ Still smirking, Neo rolled over to plant a quick kiss on Ruby’s cheek. Weiss hadn’t thought it was possible for Ruby to get any redder, yet she was proven wrong as Ruby let out a series of incoherent squeaks before burying her face in the pillows.

“I think you might have broken Ruby, Süße.” Weiss quipped, mildly amused that for once she wasn’t the one on the receiving end of Neo’s teasing flirtations. There was a groan from Ruby, muffled by the pillow as Weiss reached over Neo to pat her on the shoulder. “This is what you sign up for if you’re dating Neo.” Ruby let out another muffled groan that earned a wheezy chuckle from Neo as Weiss stretched out and climbed out of bed.

“As much as I’d love to stay in bed all day with the two of you, we’ve got things to do.” Neither Neo nor Ruby made any move to get up as well. In fact, Neo rolled over to bury herself into Ruby’s side, making the brunette squeak in surprise.

“Well, if you’re both going to be like that, I’ll go downstairs and get started on breakfast.” Weiss huffed good-naturedly, leaning down to press a soft kiss first to Neo’s cheek, then Ruby’s, before straightening up and reclaiming her scroll. “I’ll send you a message when it’s ready.”

There was a grunt of approval from Ruby as Weiss crossed the room and exited, closing the door quietly behind her. Weiss slipped down the stairs, not wanting to disturb anyone else who might still be sleeping after yesterday’s exertion.

As she entered the living room, Weiss was surprised that Sun was nowhere to be seen, but someone else had beaten her there instead. Ilia sat stiffly in one of the chairs and jumped when Weiss coughed. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously at the chameleon Faunus, all of Weiss’ good mood from waking up with her girlfriends slipping away.

“Oh, Sch- _ Weiss,  _ I didn’t hear you come down.” Ilia shuffled awkwardly under Weiss’ scrutiny as she walked around the table to settle on one of the sofas a conspicuous distance away.

“I didn’t want to wake anyone. You’re up quite early though.” Weiss’ tone was clipped. No matter what Kali said about her wanting to atone, Weiss could still remember with great clarity the upset on Blake’s face after the confrontation at the mausoleum.

“Heh, yeah, well, you get used to early mornings with the White Fang, and it’s a hard habit to break.” Ilia chuckled nervously, looking down at her lap where her fingers fidgeted restlessly. “Though I wasn’t actually the first one up.”

Weiss raised an eyebrow questioningly, but it was answered for her by a call from the kitchen. “You take milk or sugar in your coffee, Ils?”

Weiss’ other eyebrow rose to meet the other as Ilia called back, her cheeks tinted slightly pink. “Just black, please.” After a moment, Yang emerged from the kitchen bearing two steaming mugs.

“Oh! Mornin’, Weiss.” Yang sounded unusually cheery as she handed Ilia one of the mugs, keeping the other for herself as she dropped onto the sofa beside Weiss. “Sleep well?”

“Pretty good, still aching a little after getting electrocuted twice though.” Yang winced in sympathy.

“Oof, yeah, I remember. That bolt of lightning looked painful.” Off to the side, Ilia looked at Weiss with wide eyes, apparently impressed by Weiss’ fortitude.

“It was definitely not something I wish to repeat. I’ll leave getting struck by lightning to Nora.” Weiss said glibly as Yang snorted into her coffee. “What about you?”

“I didn’t take nearly as much of a beating as you did, so I’m just sore from over-exertion, ya know?” Both Weiss and Ilia nodded in agreement. They all knew what it felt like to push yourself a little too hard, and the pain that would come the next morning.

“Mhmm, I wasn’t involved in much fighting last night, but I did take a pretty hard hit to the head and it feels like it’s still ringing.” Ilia chipped in, earning a frown from Weiss, which only deepened as Yang spoke in concern.

“You didn’t mention anything last night, Ils. We’ve got some stuff for headaches somewhere.” Yang started to get up, but Weiss beat her to it.

“I think they’re in the kitchen. I need some coffee anyway.” She told the other two, her tone brittle with annoyance. Not waiting for an acknowledgement from the other two, Weiss briskly stalked off into the kitchen, her wings flapping irritably. Once there, she leaned up on one of the counters, gripping the edge hard and trying to calm her breathing.

Yang had known this girl, this  _ former terrorist _ , for less than a day, and already she spoke with more worry and concern for Ilia than she had for Blake. Did she not know the upset Ilia had put Blake through?

“Hey, Weiss, you sure you’re okay? You seem kinda off.” Yang’s voice called Weiss out of her irritated reverie and she snorted derisively.

“I’m fine, sure you can leave  _ Ils  _ alone? What with her awful headache.” Weiss shot back snidely, not bothering to turn around and face Yang, instead busying herself with filling the kettle.

“...That’s what you’re pissed about?” Yang’s voice hardened a little and a note of anger entered her voice. “What the fuck do you have against Ilia?”

“Oh I don’t know, maybe that she was a member of the White Fang?” Weiss snapped, taking the filled kettle and dropping it on its stand to boil and finally deigning to turn and face Yang.

“You mean like Blake was?”

“Blake left the White Fang over two years ago, Ilia only defected recently.”

“Oh, so that’s it? She didn’t leave long enough ago?” Yang’s eyes started to take on a light magenta hue.

“Of course there’s more to it than that, Yang.” Weiss scoffed, turning her attention now to finding a mug and retrieving the coffee. As she did so, it occurred to her that she could make some for Ruby and Neo too and so retrieved two more mugs. “She stabbed Sun, denounced our cause and outed me as a Schnee, tried to drop a crate on us, and this isn’t even taking into account what she said to Blake about Sienna.”

“All things I’m sure she regrets and wants to make up for.” Yang argued as Weiss retrieved the milk from the fridge.

“You weren’t there, Yang, you’re not close enough to see how much she’s hurt Blake.”

“Like how you weren’t close enough to see the hurt Neo did to me?”

Yang’s words brought Weiss to a screeching halt. With forced calm, Weiss set the milk bottle down on the counter and turned to face Yang, who was waiting expectantly, eyebrow raised. “That was different, I had months of time with Neo…” Weiss tried to defend herself weakly and Yang’s eyebrow rose even higher. Weiss deflated silently, knowing she didn’t really have a leg to stand on. Was this really how Yang had felt about Neo?

“...I’m sorry.” Weiss eventually sighed, leaning back against the counter and letting her head hang in shame. “It’s pretty hypocritical of me to be so callous to Ilia, isn’t it?”

“You’re being protective of Blake, nothing wrong with that, just that you’re being kinda overzealous.” Yang frowned a little as she mentioned Blake, all the old hurt bubbling back to the surface.

“I thought everything would go back to normal. Back to how things were back at Beacon.” Weiss confessed, fetching the coffee out of one of the cupboards as the kettle finished boiling, it was cheap instant stuff since the house went through at least three jars a week and their stipend didn’t stretch all that far. “And instead I come down and find you making buddy buddy with Ilia whilst you and Blake are treading on glass around each other.”

“We’re not at Beacon anymore though, Weiss.” Yang sounded sympathetic as she reached out to pat Weiss on the shoulder. “This is our new normal. And besides, Ilia’s pretty cool. We’ve actually got quite a bit in common. We both like the Achieve Men, we’re both weapons enthusiasts…” Yang paused for a moment, her eyes now back to their normal lilac as they clouded over.

“And we both know what it’s like to be left by Blake.” A long awkward silence stretched between the two of them, broken every so often by the clink of spoon on mug as Weiss made the coffee for herself, Ruby and Neo, the latter two containing blasphemous amounts of milk and sugar.

“So you and Blake being awkward around each other, barely making eye contact, that’s your new normal?”

“It’s complicated, Weiss.” Yang rebutted, though her hand reached up to grasp her bicep and she refused to meet Weiss’ gaze.

“It always is, isn’t it?” Weiss said, half to herself as she finished with the coffee and pulled out her scroll to send a message off to Neo. Pulling out a tray, Weiss loaded her precious cargo of caffeine onto it and was about to carry it back out into the living room when she remembered one of the other reasons she’d gone to the kitchen. Hastily, she doubled back and opened up the cabinet they kept the medicines in and grabbed some aspirin, dropping it onto her tray.

Satisfied she had everything, Weiss picked up the tray again and left the kitchen, Yang trailing behind, still a little down. Re-entering the living room, they found Ilia chatting with a rather sweaty Sun.

“Hey, Weiss!” The young man chirped happily in greeting as Weiss set her tray down on the table. “Ooh, one of those for me?” He reached out for one, but Weiss swatted it away lightly.

“They’re for Ruby and Neo, they’ll be down in a little bit.” She informed him primly, picking up her own mug and taking a moment to enjoy the smell of the coffee. “I was surprised you weren’t here when I came down.”

“Oh, these two woke me up when they came downstairs, figured I ought to get my morning run out of the way before Mr and Mrs B get here.”

“Maybe you should go take a shower before they arrive, then.” Ilia suggested, a slight smirk on her face. “Don’t give Chief Belladonna another reason to dislike you.”

“In a sec, besides, me and Mr B are cool now.” Sun turned his attention to Yang and Weiss. “So what did Nora mean last night when she said we’ve got a super powerful magic lady on our side?” The pair exchanged a look, not quite sure how much they should say, Weiss in particular was more than a little reticent. She trusted Sun implicitly, of course, and saw no reason why he shouldn’t know, but the young man did have a habit of running his mouth even worse than Nora, and who knew how far the information could end up spreading.

“I think we should wait for everyone to be here before we start answering questions.” Weiss offered diplomatically, which Sun accepted with a nod as he got up.

“Alrighty, I’ll go take that shower now, then.” Waving goodbye to Ilia and Yang, he made his way over to the stairs dodging around Ruby and Neo as they entered the room, still looking a little groggy from sleep.

“Morning, sleepyheads.” Yang teased as the pair made their way over and accepted their mugs of coffee from Weiss, collapsing onto the sofa together.

“Mornin’, Yang.” Ruby mumbled, snuggling up to Neo and sipping at her drink. “Thanks for the coffee, Princess.”

“No problem, Liebling.” Weiss smiled softly at her girlfriends, Neo giving her a thumbs up as thanks before downing about half the drink in one go. As she did so, Weiss noticed out of the corner of her eye Yang looking at Ruby and Neo suspiciously.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me.” She finally exclaimed after Ruby pulled her feet up to rest in Neo’s lap. “Ruby, you and Neo?”

“Um, surprise?” Ruby grinned sheepishly at her older sister. “We only started dating last night and we were going to tell everyone later after we talked, so would you mind not mentioning it?”

“Alright, you’ve got _excellent_ timing though.” Yang snorted, her initial incredulity fading fast. “Uncle Qrow’s not gonna be happy.”

“Well, he’ll just have to live with it.” Weiss said sharply, setting down her now empty mug and wrapping an affectionate wing around Ruby. “And I only see this as a good thing.”

There was an awkward cough from nearby and Weiss remembered that Ilia was still in the room, the chameleon Faunus looking between the three in mild confusion. “Um, am I understanding this right? The three of you are all dating each other?”

“Yep, we are!” Ruby chirped in answer as she nuzzled back into Weiss’ wing, the coffee having perked her up. “I don’t think we’ve been introduced properly. I’m Ruby Rose.”

“Ilia… Ilia Amitola.” The young woman looked rather taken aback by the unexpectedly cheerful greeting.

“Nice to meet you.” Any further conversation was interrupted by a loud pounding down the stairs as Nora burst through the room and charged straight for the kitchen, singing gleefully about pancakes. Ren followed soon after and Weiss got up to help him in making breakfast and stopping Nora from eating it all.

Over the next half an hour, the various other members of the household arrived for breakfast, though Oscar was notably absent, and soon enough everyone was engaged in various casual conversations as they ate. Weiss took particular note of how Blake and Yang acted around each other, and it was almost painful to watch two people who’d been so deeply in love behave like this. The pair shared a sofa together, but unlike last night, sat a conspicuous distance apart with enough space for someone to sit between them, though nobody dared to. They occasionally spoke to one another, exchanging polite conversation, but they always ended rather quickly and they never made eye contact once, and Weiss was sure she couldn’t be the only one who felt the crackling tension between the pair.

Of course, Weiss had other things to deal with other than her teammates, and she was in the middle of trying to stop Neo and Nora from fighting over who got to drink the remaining syrup when there was a knock at the door. All the conversations ground to a halt, though Neo did take advantage of the distraction to claim the syrup for herself.

Grumbling a little, Qrow got up from his chair and sloped to the front door, returning a few moments later with Mr and Mrs Belladonna in tow. As Blake got up to greet their parents with a hug, Qrow moved to the centre of the room and gravelled out.

“So, I guess it’s time for some answers, huh?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really have much to say about this chapter, cute fluff is cute and the yangst is real. Side note though, I do like the idea of Yang and Ilia being friends, I think they'd have an interesting dynamic, which is why I'm doing that here.
> 
> Also, I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being so adorable~. Lots of thanks too to the lovely [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being the sweetest to me.


	3. Chapter 3

“Shouldn’t we wait for Oscar?” Yang asked, also having noticed the absence of possibly the most important people to this meeting.

“In a sec, Firecracker.” Qrow looked between the newcomers, his gaze lingering in particular on Ilia and Sun. “Some of the things we’re about to share can’t leave this room, and quite frankly, I don’t trust these newbies.” Blake bristled at Qrow’s insinuations as he once again looked between Ilia and Sun.

“Anything you can say to me, you can say to them.” Blake gritted out, glaring defiantly up at the old man. Ghira and Kali also looked mildly incensed by Qrow’s mistrust, but said nothing.

“Look, Kittycat, you don’t know just how important this is and we can’t risk it getting out.” There was a low growl from Ghira and Blake’s ears flattened angrily, as did Kali’s, their earrings clicking in the tense silence. Weiss felt her wings start to flare in agitation, smacking against Neo, and across the room, Ilia’s skin turned a light shade of red.

“What the fuck, man?” Sun wasn’t nearly as incensed by Qrow’s careless nicknaming as the other Faunus in the room, but was still clearly unhappy with it. “That was so not cool.”

“You. Do not. Get. To call me that.” Blake hissed and for the briefest of moments, Qrow looked cowed, his eyes fixed not on Blake, but on Yang, her eyes burning with unspoken rage.

“Whatever…” He coughed and tried to regain some composure and control. “My point still stands though, this is far bigger than you realise and we can’t just start telling anyone and everyone.”

“I thought we were opting for a ‘no more lies or hiding things’ policy?” Weiss snarked, earning a sharp look from Qrow as he opened his mouth to rebut but was cut off by a voice from the stairs.

“Miss Schnee is right.” Everyone’s head swivelled to watch as Ozpin entered the room, leaning heavily on his cane to walk. Weiss’ eyes widened slightly as she saw the relic Yang had retrieved from the vault hanging from his belt. “We made that decision, and I feel everyone present here deserves to know the truth.”

Reluctantly, Qrow nodded, still looking rather unhappy about the prospect, though the tension in the room did lessen. “Glad to see you’re feeling better, Oz.” The newcomers to the group looked at Ozpin curiously, trying to work out who this young boy was.

“Likewise.” Ozpin slowly made his way to the centre of the room. Qrow moved aside to let him take over as he planted his cane firmly in front of himself.

“Forgive me, but who exactly are you, young man?” Ghira asked, voicing the question on the other Faunus’ minds.

“Ah, well, I would’ve preferred to start elsewhere, but I suppose who I am is as good a place as any.” Weiss had to resist the temptation to roll her eyes at Ozpin’s propensity for verbosity. “I believe we did meet once before, Chief Belladonna, although it was a rather brief meeting.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t recognise you.”

“Yes, well, I wasn’t exactly like this when we met I-.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, he’s Ozpin!” Nora exploded, saving Weiss from her own outburst at how circuitous Ozpin’s explanations were. “Professor Ozpin’s magic and super old and he gets reincarnated in a new body whenever he dies and this is the latest.” A stunned silence followed Nora’s summation as she flopped back on the sofa and gratefully received a comforting hand on her shoulder from Jaune.

“No way, you’re fucking with us.” Sun finally broke the silence, staring agog at Ozpin.

“Ahem, no, we’re not. Blunt as she was, Miss Valkyrie is correct. I am Ozpin, reincarnated. I am currently sharing this body with Oscar, and magic is indeed real.”

“Excuse me.” Ghira made his way around the sofa he’d been standing behind and, after Ren had moved out of the way, he proceeded to collapse upon it. After a few moments, he looked up at Ozpin. “You’re seriously asking us to believe that magic is real?”

“Yes, I am, and I’m afraid that’s only the start.” Weiss looked over at Blake to see how they were handling this information, and was surprised to see they were perfectly calm, and seemed to be completely accepting of this world-shifting revelation. “Tell me, what’s your favourite fairy tale?”

“Yeah, no.” Yang spoke up before anyone could answer. “We don’t need to go through that whole spiel again.” She got up to stand beside Ozpin who seemed mildly annoyed that his explanation was being hijacked again. “Yes, magic is real, if you don’t believe us, Uncle Qrow can do his bird trick. More importantly and most relevant is that the Grimm aren’t just wild animals. They have a master, and her name is Salem.”

That got a reaction from Blake, their eyes widening as they remembered the illusion they’d seen last night whilst Yang continued. “She’s immortal and won’t stop until humanity is crushed and snuffed out.”

She paused for a moment to let the information sink in, and the reactions of those first learning this information ran the whole gamut. Sun still looked disbelieving, Ilia’s skin had gone white and the elder Belladonnas seemed to be reluctantly accepting of the news.

“Way to break the news gently, Firecracker.” Qrow snarked, earning a glare from Yang.

“It’s better than the explanation I got from Raven.” He had no answer for that and reluctantly fell silent again.

“And what, pray tell, are we supposed to do with this information?” Ghira rumbled, still looking rather disturbed by the knowledge, and Yang just shrugged.

“Better to know the truth then not. Will you stop fighting the Grimm because you know about Salem and that you think the fight is hopeless?”

“Of course not.”

“There you go.”

“It also gives context to what happened at Beacon.” Weiss added, though she shrank a little under everyone’s collective gaze. “The gods gave humanity four gifts, creation, destruction, knowledge and choice. According to the Professor, they’re more than just metaphorical. They exist as relics, which he hid in each of the academies to protect them. That was one of the targets during the Fall, and last night as well.”

Weiss looked over Ozpin and the item attached to his belt, also taking note of his slightly miffed expression that his grandiose speech had been hijacked.

“One of the targets?” Kali spoke up for the first time, she looked slightly queasy and uncertain, but stood firm, a hand resting on Ghira’s shoulder for comfort.

“Do you know the Story of the Seasons?” Ozpin asked of the group, trying to reclaim control of the narrative, but was interrupted by Yang.

“Not that important. TLDR: four sisters named for the seasons, Ozpin gave them some of his magical powers and they’re now called Maidens. Their powers are passed down to young women through some overly complicated method when the previous Maiden dies.”

“Ahem, not quite how I would have put it, but in essence, yes. The woman known as Cinder Fall,in service to Salem, attacked the previous Fall Maiden and stole a portion of her powers. My allies and I tried to keep poor Amber alive and to prevent Cinder from taking the rest of the power, but during The Fall, she claimed the other half of the Maiden’s powers.”

“Killing Pyrrha in the process, after you decided to get her to inherit them instead.” Jaune muttered and Neo shuffled uncomfortably in place, looking down at her lap as Yang finished Ozpin’s statement.

“Yeah, so Cinder was the Fall Maiden, at least until last night.”

“What do you mean ‘until last night’? The powers were passed on?” Sun asked, by now seeming to be completely on board with all this new information. Neo continued to squirm beside Weiss as Yang glanced over at her.

“You’d better ask Neo that.”

“I think we’d all like to know what happened down in the vault and how you obtained this.” Ozpin tapped the relic and looked expectantly at Neo, who nudged Weiss to get her attention.

_ ‘Can you translate for me?’  _ With a nod of agreement from the bird Faunus, Neo continued, her fingers occasionally tripping over one another in her nervousness.  _ ‘After I woke up, Jaune told me what had happened and that Cinder had gone down into the vault. So I went after her.’ _

_ ‘When I got to the bottom, it was chaos. Raven and Cinder were fighting, the vault was open and Vernal was dead.’  _ Weiss paused in her dutiful translation at the mention of Vernal. Honestly she hadn’t expected that. Neither Neo nor Yang had mentioned what had happened down in the vault, save for the fact that Cinder had been killed and Neo inherited her Maiden powers. With the lack of mention of Raven or Vernal, Weiss had assumed they’d both fled using Raven’s semblance, not that Vernal had perished.

“What about the power of the Spring Maiden?” Ozpin’s gaze remained fixed firmly on Neo, who simply shrugged.

_ ‘I don’t know. I don’t think Cinder took them, nor did Raven have them.’ _

“Then they must be lost… That makes things more difficult.” Ozpin mused half to himself half to Qrow, who nodded grimly. “Please continue, Miss Neopolitan.”

_ ‘There’s not much else to say. Cinder was distracted, so I took the opportunity and I stabbed her. I watched the life drain from her eye and threw the body over the side when I was sure she was dead.’  _ A few of the others looked a little disturbed by Neo’s lack of remorse, notable exceptions being Ilia and Blake.

_ ‘That’s when it happened. This light came flying up from the darkness and hit me, became a part of me.’  _ Neo’s hands sped up as an odd expression crossed her face.  _ ‘All that power, filling me, it was intoxicating. I’ve never felt like that before.’ _

Ozpin stared appraisingly at Neo, his head tilted in curiosity as she finished.  _ ‘It was actually almost too much. Getting impaled took more out of me than I thought.’  _ Weiss frowned at Neo’s still rather cavalier feelings towards nearly dying, but refrained from chiding her.

_ ‘I think I saw Raven approaching the vault.’  _ She shot Yang a questioning look and was given the smallest of nods so she finished.  _ ‘But that’s the last thing I remember before coming to in the lift back up to the surface.’ _

“I see…” Ozpin now turned his attention to Yang. “Miss Xiao Long, are you able to fill in the last details?”

“Not much to say. When I got down there, Neo was the only one left. The vault was still open and the relic was there, so I just took it. Didn’t want to just leave it sitting there.” Weiss had known Yang for a long time and there seemed to be something off with her voice as she finished the account. It was so subtle, Weiss was pretty sure nobody else picked up on the quiet brittleness in her tone.

“Raven just left the relic?” Qrow’s voice dripped with disbelief and he eyed Yang suspiciously. “That doesn’t sound like my sister.”

“Well, that’s what I found. Besides, do any of us really know what her plans are? She threw her lot in with Cinder, only to end up fighting her.” Yang spoke firmly, as though daring Qrow to openly challenge her account. Weiss’ attention was taken away from the near-confrontation though by Neo stiffening slightly beside her, the pastel girl’s eyes flitting nervously between Yang and Qrow.

“Miss Xiao Long does have a point that Raven’s motives have often been shrouded.” Yang nodded in agreement with Ozpin’s assessment and Weiss knew something was definitely off. They may be unknown to everyone else, but she and Yang had heard first-hand exactly what motivated Raven. Yang was hiding something, but she wasn’t about to call her out just yet.

“So we have the relic and a Maiden. What happens next?” Ghira asked Ozpin, who sighed deeply.

“It is fortunate that the Fall Maiden’s powers have been retrieved, but the loss of those of the Spring Maiden poses an issue. Without the Spring Maiden, we will be unable to reseal the relic in the vault.”

“Last night, you mentioned something about Atlas. Right, Oz?”

“I did indeed. With Mistral’s force of hunters depleted by Leonardo’s actions, I fear keeping the relic here would do more harm than good. I believe that going to Atlas is our best option. It’s well-protected and we can regroup with James to determine what our next move is.”

Weiss blinked a couple of times before speaking out loudly. “You have  _ got  _ to be kidding me.” Beside her, Neo nodded vigorously in agreement with Weiss’ outburst.

“Miss Schnee, I do understand your reluctance to return to Atlas, but I’m afraid we haven’t many options and our allies are running thin.” She did have to concede that point, and any reasons she had not to go to Atlas were purely personal.

“But the borders are closed, Ironwood recalled everyone.” Ren pointed out quietly, speaking for the first time in the conversation.

“I’ve got a few ideas of how we can get in, don’t you worry.” Qrow assured them, a hint of his normal cocky attitude seeping back into his voice.

“And what of you, Chief Belladonna? What do you intend to do?”

“Well, it goes without saying I can’t go gallivanting off to Atlas. My people need me here now, and then back on Menagerie. My wife and I are taking temporary leadership of the new White Fang until its proper leader can take their position.” He smiled proudly over at Blake, who blushed a little, but looked strangely conflicted about something. Then again, Blake had seemed conflicted ever since their reunion.

“Of course. I assume you two will be assisting them?” Ozpin looked to Sun and Ilia, the latter nodding whilst the former grinned sheepishly.

“Actually, I kinda abandoned my team and I need to get back to them.” He laughed nervously, rubbing at the back of his head. “They’re probably really pissed with me.”

“I told you, I’m taking the blame for you leaving them like that.” Weiss interrupted sharply before looking over at Qrow. “I presume we have some time before we depart for Atlas?”

“Yeah, it’ll take me a little while to work out how we’re getting there.”

“Excellent, then we can track down your teammates and apologise to them.”

“Well, if nobody has any more questions…?” Ozpin asked now that the conversation had ground to something of a halt.

“Actually, I had one.” Jaune raised a hand and pointed it at the relic. “What exactly  _ does  _ the relic do? Nobody ever actually mentioned.”

“Ah, yes.” Ozpin unhooked the object from his belt and released it over the table, where to everyone’s surprise it simply hung in the air, floating a few inches above the table’s surface, and expanded until it was twice its previous size.

“The Relic of Knowledge possesses a truly wondrous and dangerous power. Its user may ask it any question and the lamp will give you an answer.” Everyone in the room stared at the floating object in awe. All sorts of questions and ideas rushed through her head. Any question, and the lamp would answer?

“Unfortunately, it does have its limitations. It cannot answer questions of things which are yet to pass, it’s not an instrument of prophecy. On top of that, it will only answer three questions every hundred years.”

“Well, I guess it could be worse.” Yang shrugged and folded her arms as she looked at the lamp. “Adds a lot of pressure though. You’d think a gift from the gods would be a little more useful and a lot less restrictive.”

“The gods gave us their gifts so we could do things for ourselves, not rely on them for everything.” Weiss shot back, mildly incensed that Yang would question the gods’ wisdom. “If we could just ask the lamp anything, we would have no need to go out and learn things for ourselves, we’d become reliant upon it for everything.”

“So how do we decide what to ask it? Oh, we could put it to a vote!” Nora interrupted Weiss’ impromptu lesson to slip off her sofa and gaze longingly at the relic.

“I’m afraid you won’t be able to ask it anything, the questions were used before I sealed it away.” Ozpin told them all, reaching out to take the relic back as the underlying excitement in the room about the relic faded.

“If that’s everything, I shall take my leave.” With a small bow, his eyes glowed momentarily and faded, leaving behind Oscar.

“Are there any pancakes left?” As Oscar left in search of some breakfast, Ghira got up, straightening his outfit.

“Well, this has been… enlightening, but Kali and I have a meeting with the Mistral council to discuss the events of last night. Ilia, would you come with us?”

“Do you mind if I tag along? I should probably give my statement too.” Ghira nodded in acceptance of Qrow’s request and the four of them made their way out of the room, Blake trailing after as well. With the meeting-cum-debrief over, the groups all started to disperse to go about their day.

“Ruby, you alright?” Weiss shuffled along the sofa to talk to her girlfriend. “You didn’t say a word during the meeting.”

“Oh, yeah. I’m fine, Weiss, I just didn’t really have anything to say, and you and Yang and Neo did a great job on your own.” Ruby’s smile felt genuine to Weiss, so she returned it and pressed a soft kiss to Ruby’s temple.

“Thank you, Liebling.” As Weiss pulled back, she noticed Yang leaving the room and, oddly, Neo following a few steps behind. “Training later?”

“Sure!” Ruby chirped and pressed her own kiss to Weiss’ cheek before the Faunus got up and followed Yang and Neo.

It didn’t take her long to catch up with the pair in the indoor training area, Yang leaning up against a wall and Neo hovering awkwardly nearby.

“What’s wrong, Yang?” Weiss wasn’t interested in beating around the bush. “You were hiding something back there.”

“Nothing gets past you, does it, Weissy?” Yang grumbled as Weiss looked between her and Neo, trying to piece things together.

“No, not anymore. So what really happened when you got down to the vault?”

_ ‘I wasn’t really unconscious.’  _ Neo offered, guilt clear on her face as well as sympathy for some reason.  _ ‘I was too weak to move after getting the Maiden powers. I couldn’t do anything to stop Raven from taking the relic.’  _

“That’s when I got there. Raven already had a portal open and was about to leave with the relic.”

“Then why didn’t she?”

“She stopped to talk to me. Said that she was always going to betray Cinder, take the relic for herself, and in doing so, protect Ruby.” Yang’s frown deepened. “I told her that if she really wanted to protect Ruby, she should give us the relic.”

“What?”

“Ruby is always going to be on the frontline, fighting Salem and protecting people, and nothing Raven could do would stop her from doing that. So I told her that if we had the relic, we could use its powers to keep Ruby safe.”

Tears started to gather at the edges of Yang’s eyes. “And it worked. She just handed it over and made me promise I’d do anything to keep Ruby safe, even if it meant sacrificing myself.”

“Yang…”

“My own mother doesn’t care if I die, so long as it keeps my sister safe.” The tears now spilled forth from Yang and she slid down the wall into a crouch. “I knew she didn’t really care about me, but I always had this small shred of hope that she did care. But she really doesn’t. And now I feel so guilty because I feel jealous of Ruby, that she gets her affection, even though it’s so twisted. What sort of big sister am I? Resenting my sister over something like this when I know it’s not her fault?”

“It’s okay, Yang.” Weiss crouched down beside Yang and reached out to pat her on the shoulder. “Feelings aren’t logical and you’re a great big sister to Ruby.” Yang sniffed, moving to swipe at her eyes with her right forearm before remembering and switching to the other.

“Thanks, Weiss.”

“But why didn’t you say this at the meeting?”

“You know how Rubes would react if she found out my own mother cares more about her than me. She’d feel awful and blame herself for Raven’s shitty decisions and obsession.” Weiss hated to admit it, but Yang was probably right. Her girlfriend did have a small habit of blaming herself for things that weren’t her fault.

“Doesn’t this count as hiding things though?” Weiss asked uneasily. “We promised we weren’t going to repeat that mistake.”

“I know that, but I don’t want my business dragged out in front of everybody. I don’t want their pity.” Yang growled, though tears still rolled down her cheeks. “And it’s not like it was particularly important how we got the relic anyway.”

“If you say so…”

“Weiss, promise me you won’t say anything.” Yang’s lilac gaze met Weiss in a mixture of desperation and defiance. “Please.”

“...I promise.”

“Thank you.” Yang let out a soft sigh of relief and pulled Weiss into a hug. All the while, she could feel Neo watching her uneasily as a knot coiled in her stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, now we know what happened down in the vault, most of it anyway. Who knows what happened to Vernal, I mean I do and so does Raven, but it'll have to remain a mystery for now. I'm not very kind to Yang either, poor girl, hopefully things will get better but with Blake around and dredging up past hurt, who knows.
> 
> Also, I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and eminently kissable. Lots of thanks too to the lovely [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being super snuggly.


	4. Chapter 4

Weiss stayed with Yang and Neo in the training room for the rest of the morning, Ruby joining them not too long after. After last night’s exertions, none of them were inclined to do anything too strenuous, so they instead opted for target practice, which had the added benefit of helping Neo get comfortable with her new weapon. Once they’d finished, Neo took the opportunity to gleefully show off Cacophony properly to Yang, who in turn proceeded to gently tease Ruby over it.

“Rubes, when I told you to think of what you’d like as a courting girt, I was thinking something like jewellery, not a gun!” She chuckled, ruffling Ruby’s hair good-naturedly until the brunette ducked out of her sister’s arm’s reach.

“Then you should have said that! You know how much I love weapons.” She huffed, puffing out her cheeks in annoyance as Neo chuckled silently whilst holstering her gun.

_ ‘Well, I think it’s a lovely gift, and far more functional than some jewellery.’  _ She reassured her new girlfriend, who preened at the compliment as Yang rolled her eyes.

“Ya know, I’m half-glad I can’t understand everything you say, Neo, otherwise I’d be subjected to even more sappiness than I am thanks to these two.”

“We’re not that bad!” Weiss squawked in protest, heat crawling up her cheeks.

“You all have pet names for one another, take every opportunity to cling onto one another and look at each other with the most blatant heart-eyes I’ve ever seen.” Yang rebutted, ticking each of their crimes on her fingers.

“Hey, you and Blake were just as bad.” Ruby shot back, not quite engaging her brain in her efforts to one up her sister, and winced when Yang flinched at the mention of her and Blake’s erstwhile relationship. “Sorry, Yang.”

“I’m fine.” Yang sounded decidedly not fine and the other three exchanged several looks, silently debating who should speak first.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Weiss ventured cautiously, reaching out for Yang’s shoulder, only for the blonde to move out of the way, hunching over as she did so.

“No, I’d rather not, thanks.”

“Alright. If you do want to talk though, we’re all here for you.” Weiss’ assertion was backed up by her girlfriends, who both nodded, Ruby a little more fervently than Neo.

“Yeah, sure.” Yang straightened up and stretched out, her joints popping loudly. “I’m done with practice for today. I think we’ve all earned a break after yesterday.”

“You’re telling me.” Weiss commented, she could still feel the phantom tingling from her electrocutions. “It’s a bit early for lunch though.”

“Well, I’m going to see if Nora’s up for some games.” Yang started back towards the house, calling back over her shoulder. “I’ll see you three lovebirds at lunch.”

“So… what shall we do until then?” Weiss asked her girlfriends who exchanged a slightly awkward look.

“Actually, Neo was going to teach me more ASL. We sorta planned it whilst you were making us coffee.” Ruby kicked the ground anxiously. “Sorry.”

Weiss frowned at Ruby’s nervousness and reached out to gently take her hand. “Hey, don’t be sorry, I’ll find something to do.” She then gave Neo a sidelong look. “You’re planning on teaching her how to say you’re her hot girlfriend, aren’t you?”

_ ‘Maybe.’  _ Neo smiled in that oh-so-innocent way she did whenever she was up to mischief, and Weiss could only roll her eyes affectionately at her gremlin of a girlfriend.

“Well, do try to at least be productive and don’t spend the whole time flirting.” Blushing furiously, Ruby tried and failed to articulate an answer whilst Weiss smirked in amusement. “You two have fun though.” Leaving Neo to calm down the embarrassed Ruby, Weiss headed back to the house and wondered what she could do to kill some time.

The downstairs living room was surprisingly empty. There was normally at least one person in each of the common areas at any given time. Deciding to momentarily take advantage of the relative quiet, since she could hear Nora hollering something upstairs, Weiss sat down in one of the chairs to think, letting her wings spread to their full extent as she did so.

So much had happened in a very short space of time and Weiss had had very little time to properly process it all. Blake had come back to them, Ruby and Neo were dating now, Neo was a Maiden and Cinder was dead. The last one gave Weiss pause for a moment.

The woman she’d been fixated on killing to the point of obsession for months was dead, but she didn’t feel anything. Shouldn’t she feel something? Not happiness, obviously, that would be tacky. No matter how much Cinder deserved her fate, taking joy in it definitely felt wrong. But surely she should at least feel some sense of accomplishment or satisfaction that justice had been served.

Before she could properly examine her feelings though, Weiss was interrupted by a loud and familiar voice. “Come on, Blake! You showed me around Vale, let me show you my old stomping grounds.” Turning the corner from the stairs, Blake and a very animated Sun entered the room, the monkey Faunus almost prancing around his friend.

“Sun, you were barely here before coming to Vale for the Vytal Festival.” Blake pointed out dryly, noticing Weiss and giving her a small wave. “Hey, Weiss. No Ruby or Neo?”

“We aren’t joined at the hip, Blake. We do have our own things.” Blake hummed in tacit approval as they sat down on one of the sofas, Sun vaulting over the back to join them and earning a resigned eye roll from Weiss.

“So what have you two been doing? Aside from ignoring basic decorum when it comes to furniture.”

“Oh, Jaune’s been giving us the full run down of what’s been happening since Beacon and more details about the whole ‘magic is real and there’s an evil immortal lady who wants to destroy us all’ thing.” Sun chirped, ignoring the light jab and sounding awfully chipper for someone who’d just been told about a global conspiracy led by an immortal headmaster.

“It was… quite a bit to take in.” Blake added, looking distinctly uneasy, more in line with what Weiss expected as a reaction. “Magic? Maidens? Gifts from the gods?” Blake’s tone slid into something of a sneer when she mentioned the last part, and Sun’s cheerful smile turned down a little as well.

“Yeah, well, like Blake said, it was a lot.” The corners of his mouth turned up again as Sun looked over at Weiss, mischief sparkling in his eyes. “Something else Jaune mentioned whilst he was getting us caught up with what’s been going on. He mentioned you and Neo are ‘together-together’ now.”

Weiss let out a soft groan as she awaited the teasing that Sun was about to unleash. “Yes, Neo and I have been dating for a few months now. We talked things out with Ruby and things have been going well.” Very well in her opinion, since Neo was probably making out with Ruby right now instead of teaching her. Then again, Weiss wouldn’t mind if Neo were to give Ruby a few pointers on how to kiss. Enthusiastic as Ruby was, she did lack some of the technique Neo had.

“Hello? Remnant to Weiss, you still there?” Weiss’ fantasy of being kissed by Ruby under Neo’s tutelage was rudely interrupted by Sun, the monkey Faunus waving a hand in front of Weiss’ face.

“Yes, Sun.” She snapped a little harshly, irked by the intrusion. “I’m still here, I was just thinking about something.”

“You were thinking about Ruby and Neo, weren’t you?” Weiss didn’t deign to answer that question, which seemed to be all the answer Sun needed as he whooped with laughter. “Gee, Weiss, how come Kali let you have two girlfriends?”

“That’s enough, Sun.” Blake finally spoke up, though they were also smirking at Weiss’ plight. “No more teasing Weiss.”

“Ugh, fine.” Sun relented and Weiss flashed Blake a grateful smile before changing the topic so Sun couldn’t try to tease her any further.

“So, Jaune told you what’s been happening here, but what about you two? What happened on Menagerie after I left?” Blake and Sun exchanged a look as Weiss asked her most burning question. “And how did you end up working with Ilia?”

“Well, for the first few months after you left, we continued trying to recruit people for the militia, but it didn’t really go well.” Sun scratched at the back of his head as Blake continued.

“We kept getting more news of how Adam was cleaning house in the White Fang, purging any dissenters. That combined with the local chapters efforts to stymie our efforts meant all our hard work was pretty much for naught.”

“Well, something must have changed, since it looked like you had a lot of people with you last night.”

“Yeah, the assassination attempt.” Sun spoke nonchalantly and Weiss did a double take at just how calm he was about it.

“I’m sorry, but I could’ve sworn you said assassination attempt.”

“Adam heard about our efforts on Menagerie and decided to take action just in case we were able to garner enough support.” Blake folded their arms uncomfortably when they mentioned Adam and set their gaze firmly on the floor. “He gave the order for my parents to be killed and for me to be brought to him.”

Weiss felt sick, both at the idea of Ghira and Kali being killed and of Blake being at the tender mercies of that monster. “So what happened? Obviously it didn’t work, but...”

Blake actually flushed a little in embarrassment. “It started with Ilia sending me a message asking to meet because she wanted to defect.”

Weiss blinked a couple of times before realising exactly why Blake was blushing. “You believed her?”

“We’d talked a few times. At first she was just spying on us, but she’s not nearly as sneaky as she thinks she is, and after a few times she stopped trying to be subtle and we’d just talk. About the old days, about Beacon and sometimes about nothing at all really. I thought I was getting through to her, that we were moving past the pain and that maybe I could get her to leave Adam and the Fang.” They frowned, plucking at their trousers restlessly.

“Even after everything she said and did to you, you still thought you could convince her?”

“I hurt Ilia too, and after seeing you and Neo, I thought maybe I could do something similar for her. I was wrong.”

“Hey, you did get through to her in the end, she just wasn’t quite there yet.” Sun reassured them, reaching out to pat them on the shoulder. “And it’s not like you blindly trusted her at the time either, you did have me go with you as back up.”

“I did…” Blake admitted, though they still looked disappointed in themself. “Anyway, Ilia calling me out to meet was a distraction to allow the Albains and some other members of the White Fang break into my parents house.”

Their hands clenched hard at the memory, a deep frown twisting their features. “I wanted to believe Ilia wanted to change, so I was caught off guard and caught. I was terrified, if Sun hadn’t been there, my parents would probably be dead and I’d be halfway to Adam by the next morning.”

“It’s a good thing, then, that I was there and that we instilled in you how beneficial it is to have friends you can trust.” Sun grinned smugly, lacing his fingers behind his head and leaning back in expectation of praise, but only received matching eye rolls from Blake and Weiss.

“My hero.” Blake snarked fondly and reached out to jab him gently in the shoulder. “So, Sun freed me and we ran to the house, but they’d gotten there well ahead of us.”

“There was so much fighting. They weren’t even trying to be subtle, and I won’t say it was easy, but other than a few members, they were pretty much just grunts.” Weiss let out an amused sigh at Sun’s slightly bragging tone.

“We won’t bore you with all the details.” Blake cut in as Sun opened his mouth, probably to do exactly that knowing him. “But to cut a long fight short, there was a fire, I fought Ilia and finally convinced her that Adam is wrong, one of the Albains died, I can’t remember which one, and in the end, we won.”

“Okay, that still doesn’t explain how you ended up with so many Faunus joining the militia.”

“Oh, I can answer that.” Sun’s smirk turned devilish and Blake shot him a worried look. “See, what with the gunfire, the actual fire and all the screaming, by the time all the fighting was over, there was quite a crowd gathered.” The monkey Faunus’ grin didn’t lessen as he fished his scroll out from a pocket. “So there we were, standing outside the still kinda burning building and surrounded by people who were all looking at us as though we were supposed to say something. So Blakey here steps up and launches into this big speech, which I just so happened to have recorded.”

Blake’s worried expression morphed into one of mortified horror as Sun cued up the recording for Weiss. “Sun, No!” They screeched, trying to grab the scroll from him, but he held it high out of their reach as it began to play.

“This is what Adam and his White Fang stand for, death and destruction! They don’t care about building a better world for us, only about tearing down the old with no thought for the future. Do you want that to be our legacy? Because if we don’t stop him and his corruption of the White Fang, then it will be. Yes, the world is not kind to us, we have had to fight fang and claw for our rights and freedom and perhaps the system does need to be torn down. But we always fought for the chance to build a better tomorrow, and that is what we will be fighting for at Haven Academy!”

The cheers emanating from the scroll were promptly cut off as Blake finally managed to scale Sun and seize the scroll, shutting off the playback whilst blushing furiously.

“Blake! I was enjoying that!” Sun protested, trying and failing to reclaim his scroll.

“I said no, it’s embarrassing!” They continued to blush, settling back onto the sofa whilst still holding the device away from Sun.

“I don’t know why, that was a great speech.” Weiss commented as she watched the other two fighting for control of the scroll.

“See, Weiss agrees!” Sun choked out around Blake’s hand as they pushed him away. “Mrs B even said it was like watching one of Sienna’s speeches back in the early days of the White Fang.” Somehow Blake went even redder at the comparison and this distraction was enough for Sun to reclaim his scroll, tucking it away victoriously.

“It really wasn’t that good...” Blake mumbled, reaching up to toy with their necklace’s pendant.

“You’re a lot better than you give yourself credit for, Blake.” Weiss reassured her friend, shuffling out of her chair to hug them.

“Thanks, Weiss.” Blake mumbled, reaching around to run their fingers over Weiss’ wings. “I missed you.”

“Missed you too.” Weiss held the hug for a little longer before releasing Blake and retreating back to her seat. “So you’re the new leader of the White Fang, then?”

The blush on Blake’s face that had started to recede came back in full force. “Not really, Dad’s the one in charge.”

“Didn’t he say it was only temporary though?”

“He did. We never really discussed it properly, but since he’s got Menagerie to run, he’s not looking to lead the new White Fang at the same time. Too many responsibilities.”

“Don’t you want to be the new High Leader? Take after your father and Sienna?”

“I do, I’m just not all that comfortable with being some public figure, or even with being a leader.” Blake shrugged heavily, as though the weight of responsibility was already laid upon them.

“Maybe Ruby can offer some pointers about leadership?” Weiss suggested helpfully. “I’m not sure how long we’re going to be in Altas, or what happens after that, but there’ll be plenty of time for you to learn and prepare to take over once we’re done.”

A frown wormed its way onto Blake’s face when Weiss mentioned Atlas. Weiss didn’t really blame them, it left a bad taste in her mouth and she was not looking forward to returning there either. “I don’t know if I’m going to go with you to Atlas...”

“What?” Weiss and Sun spoke in unison, exchanging looks of shock.

“I’ve got other responsibilities now.” They defended, their voice oddly subdued.

“Blake, we’re literally trying to save the world.” Weiss pointed out, shocked that Blake would even consider breaking up Team RWBY again, as Sun nodded vigorously in agreement.

“I have to lead my people, Weiss. I can’t just leave it to my dad indefinitely whilst I go with you across the world.” Their reasoning seemed sound, but something about it rang hollow. “And besides, you don’t need me, you’ve got Neo.”

“Neo’s not a replacement for you, Blake, and you know it.” Weiss snapped, her own frown deepening. “We aren’t Team RWBY without you.”

“I guess…” Blake still sounded reluctant and there was a strange yet oddly familiar look on their face. “But my point about the White Fang still stands, and there are some things that are more important to me than whatever quest Ozpin wants us to go on.”

That was when it clicked for Weiss. She knew where she’d seen that look before, in the mirror when she’d been intent on hunting down Cinder. “Blake, why do you really want to stay in Mistral? Is it because you want to hunt down Adam after he escaped yesterday?”

Blake’s eyes widened in shock for a moment then narrowed them. “He abused me for years and killed countless people, as well as my Māmā. I swore to her that I’d get vengeance for her murder, and I don’t intend to stop until I do.”

“Blake, surely you don’t mean that.” Sun asked nervously as he gave Weiss a pleading look.

“I do. It’s what he deserves.” Again Sun looked to Weiss, silently pleading with her to say something.

“She’s right, I think he does deserve it.” Sun’s jaw dropped at Weiss’ words. “I never told you how I spent most of the last year planning on killing Cinder for what happened to Pyrrha and Penny. It’s actually what helped me and Neo bond at first. We both wanted her dead.”

“So you understand why I can’t let him get away, why I have to stay and hunt him down.” Blake looked down at their hands as they twisted restlessly.

“I also understand that obsessing over him like this is good for you either.” Their gaze snapped up to meet Weiss’, surprise in her eyes. “Neo and I got here a few months ago and for the most part we weren’t doing anything, just waiting for the White Fang attack.” Weiss’ wings fluttered restlessly at the memories.

“I fixated on hunting down Cinder, to the point of obsession. I stopped paying attention to Ruby and neglected her. I spent all my time with Neo trying to work out with her how we would take Cinder down since she was a Maiden. And in the end it became too much. I hurt Ruby and Neo, and probably would have hurt myself if I’d carried on.”

“This isn’t an obsession, Weiss. If I don’t start tracking him now, the trail will go cold.”

“It’s not an obsession  _ yet _ .” Weiss corrected, not liking the slightly manic gleam in Blake’s eyes at all. “Blake, we’ve both had problems in the past where we’d fixate on things to an unhealthy degree, and every time we did, our friends pulled us out of it and reminded us that other things are important too.”

“Bu-.” Blake’s rebuttal was cut off as Weiss raised a hand and continued to speak.

“If you really want to do this, the rest of us can’t follow. We’re going to Atlas. Do you really want to leave us again so soon?”

Blake didn’t answer for a while as they shuffled uncomfortably in place. “No, I don’t.” They eventually spoke, not meeting Weiss’ eye as they did. “But I don’t think I’d be all that welcome if I were to come with you…”

“Blake, we’re all glad to see you again, of course we want you with us.”

“Even Yang?” Weiss didn’t have an answer for that, so Blake let out a humourless laugh and shook their head. “I need to think about it.”

An awkward silence fell between the trio of Faunus, until Weiss finally broke it. “So, Sun, do you know how we’re going to find the rest of your team?”

As Sun launched into an explanation of what his teammates were probably up to, relieved at having moved away from the previous difficult topic, Weiss snuck a glance at Blake. Their eyes no longer held that same gleam of determination and they looked pensively at the floor, probably ignoring Sun’s chatter about Scarlet’s family in Wind Path.

Weiss hoped that Blake would decide to come with them to Atlas. It had been less than a day since her family had reunited and she couldn’t bear the thought of them splitting up again, let alone so soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Blake might not actually go to Atlas and it's not like we don't already just have Team RWYN to make up the numbers. Blake does suddenly have a lot of responsibility with the new White Fang which they can't easily abandon and I'm sure that's the reason they're reluctant to go and not because of any lingering awkwardness with a certain blonde. Also, I've never really liked Blake's speech in True Colors and even though Weiss wasn't present there, I felt the need to include my own modified version and hopefully y'all like it. 
> 
> Also, I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being so so adorable. Lots of thanks too to the lovely [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and making sure I look after myself.


	5. Chapter 5

“You know, Neo, we really should get you a new combat outfit.” The girl in question blinked up at Weiss from her seat beside the dining room table. It had been a couple of days since the Battle of Haven, as people were now calling it, and several things had quite drastically changed since then.

Perhaps the biggest news had been the discovery of Professor Lionheart, dead in his study. That detail got left out of the official report, of course. Instead, the general public was under the impression that Lionheart had laid down his life to protect Haven Academy. Naturally, Weiss was not happy with this decision, and neither were several of the others, which had led to something of a shouting match between them and Qrow and Ozpin. Ultimately though, since the story was already out, they’d reluctantly agreed that contradicting would only undermine trust in what was left of Mistral’s leadership.

One good thing to come of the battle, however, was that public opinion towards the Faunus was starting to shift. The lingering resentment against them for the White Fang’s involvement in the Fall of Beacon had been less pronounced in Mistral than it had in Vale, but the efforts of the Belladonnas and the militia had swayed a lot of people to their side. Of course, Weiss did have to question just how sincere this support was, since it had only come about after the civilian militia had proved they were ‘good Faunus’ and taken responsibility for stopping Adam, when it shouldn’t have been their burden to bear.

Still, any support was still good, she supposed, and in the wake of it Blake had been in and out of the house, working with their parents and Ilia on outreach and building more goodwill. They were staying at the house along with Ilia, but it still felt as though they were trying to maintain some separation between themself and Yang in particular.

This was so far removed from what Weiss had hoped would happen when Blake rejoined them. She was half-convinced sometimes it was a strange lightning-induced hallucination. But no, it was all real and incredibly painful to witness, how Yang would become withdrawn whenever Blake was in the room, how the two of them could barely make eye contact, let alone any sort of conversation, the weight of their shared experiences and their parting hanging heavily between them.

And, of course, in amongst it all, she, Neo and Ruby were busy trying to navigate both the new axis of their relationship and the fact that Neo now possessed the powers of the Fall Maiden. This led to where they were now, eating lunch together after Ozpin had tried and failed to teach Neo how to harness some of her new powers for most of the morning.

“Weiss is right, nice as it is to see you wearing our clothes, we should get some that fit you properly.” Ruby agreed, speaking around a mouthful of noodles and earning herself a chiding look from Weiss.

“Exactly. I suggest once we’ve finished lunch, we go and find a tailor to make you a new outfit.”

_ ‘But I like my current combat outfit.’  _ Neo protested, scowling unhappily at Weiss.

“Your current one has a hole in the corset and jacket, not to mention how we haven’t been able to get the bloodstains out of it.”

_ ‘So we get it professionally cleaned and repaired.’  _ Neo argued stubbornly before folding her arms.

“We’re headed up to Atlas soon, you and I both know how cold it can be up there, even if the city is heated. Your current clothes just won’t be warm enough.” Weiss frowned in confusion. “Süße, don’t you want a new outfit?”

Neo didn’t answer immediately, keeping her arms folded as she continued to pout for a while, before eventually unfolding them to talk at Ruby and Weiss’ pleading expressions.  _ ‘Roman got me those clothes when we moved to Vale.’ _

Weiss and Ruby exchanged a look. It was all the explanation they needed. Setting down her chopsticks, Weiss crawled around the table to hug Neo gently. “I’m sorry.” There was a shuffling from the other side and Weiss felt Ruby join the hug as well.

“It’s okay, Sweetie, it’s okay.” She reassured her girlfriend as Neo trembled between them. They held onto her until Neo tapped them, signalling she wanted to talk. They pulled back and Weiss was surprised to see Neo’s pout had become rather harsh.

_ ‘Alright, let’s go get me some clothes, then.’  _ Her signs were sharp with irritation, and once she was finished, she snatched up her chopsticks and quickly finished off her noodles, slurping loudly as Ruby and Weiss looked at each other, nonplussed.

“Neo, are you okay?”

_ ‘I’m fine, it’s fine.’  _ Neo quickly drained her bowl of the last of its soup, setting it down with quite a lot of force.

“I understand wanting to keep the clothes, you know what my faith says about keeping items from loved ones we’ve lost.” Weiss was starting to get worried now as Neo’s unhappy expression didn’t fade.

_ ‘No, it’s fine. They’re old and damaged, it only makes sense to get rid of them.’  _ She was getting more and more irate as she talked, her whole body was now tense and her eyes gleamed with barely suppressed hurt.

“Neo, you’re scaring me.” Ruby whimpered, reaching out for Neo’s shoulder. “Please, tell us what’s wrong.” The moment Ruby’s hand touched Neo, it was like a switch had been flipped. The pastel girl blinked in confusion a couple of times, her eyes shifting to white as her gaze flitted between her girlfriends.

_ ‘I’m sorry.’  _ She apologised with slightly shaky hands.  _ ‘But that outfit holds a lot of meaning for me.’ _

“Neo, what was that?” Weiss tried to suppress the nervous tremor in her voice. “You’ve never gotten angry like that before.”

_ ‘I wasn’t angry, I’m just a little stressed after this morning.’  _ Neo tried to explain, though her signs were still a little hesitant.  _ ‘I’m not used to being bad at anything, so it was rather frustrating.’  _ Neo had seemed to be rather irked by her inability to use her Maiden powers during Ozpin’s training session. Even so, the near outburst felt very out of character for the normally upbeat Neo.

“If you say so…” Weiss tried to sound supportive, but couldn’t quite keep the scepticism out of her voice. “You know if something is really bothering you, we want to listen and help, right?” Ruby nodded rapidly, a concerned frown twisting her normally cheerful expression.

“Anything at all.” She affirmed, though instead of reassuring Neo, Ruby’s words only seemed to make her look even more guilty.

_ ‘I’m fine, really.’  _ Neo insisted, getting to her feet and collecting her bowl, taking it into the kitchen and re-emerging a moment later.  _ ‘Shall we go get those clothes, then?’  _ Weiss didn’t want to let this slide, lest they all ended up having another tearful discussion because they hadn’t communicated properly at the right time, but before she could say anything, she was interrupted by Ruby grabbing the remaining two bowls and taking them into the kitchen as well.

“Sure! Let me just drop these in the sink and we can get ready.” She chirped, vanishing into the kitchen as the other two blinked in surprise.

_ ‘I’ll go get my stuff.’  _ Shrugging, Neo left the room and Weiss heard her trotting upstairs and the door to their room open and close before getting up herself and following Ruby into the kitchen.

“Ruby, what was that for?” She hissed harshly, startling the brunette as she placed their bowls in the sink to be washed up by Jaune later. “Obviously something’s up with Neo, why are you just letting it slide?”

“Because we have to trust her, Weiss.” Ruby sighed, leaning heavily on the counter. “And if we try to force it out of her, she might clam up and she’ll never tell us.”

“People need to be pushed sometimes.” Weiss countered, crossing her arms. “If we’re too easy on her, then she won’t tell us anyway.”

“I knoooooooow.” Groaning, Ruby turned to face Weiss, rubbing at her temples in frustration. “But pushing her could go wrong much worse than if we trust in her. At least if we leave her be for now, we still have the option to push her on it later if things get worse.”

“I suppose…” Weiss’ foot tapped restlessly as she mulled over Ruby’s argument, she didn’t like not doing anything, but she could see Ruby’s point. “Just so we’re on the same page, you don’t believe her about being frustrated with Ozpin either, do you?”

“No… I’ve seen Neo get frustrated with Ozpin before.”

“Who among us hasn’t been frustrated with him at some point?” Ruby snorted at Weiss’ glib remark.

“True, but that wasn’t like Neo at all.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Weiss frowned in thought, trying to think of what caused Neo’s outburst. “You don’t think nearly getting killed changed her or something?”

“Maybe? Nearly dying’s gotta be traumatic, but I don’t know if it would change her that much.” Ruby shrugged and Weiss had to agree with her uncertainty. This was definitely not their area of expertise.

“I could ask Kali? She’d probably know.” Weiss suggested, though uncertainty still twisted in her stomach. “It feels wrong to do something like that behind Neo’s back though.”

“We could see how she is whilst we’re shopping and decide after.”

Weiss still didn’t like it, but nodded cautiously. Before she could make any more suggestions though, they were interrupted by Neo poking her head into the kitchen, confusion on her face.

_ ‘Aren’t you two coming?’ _

“In a sec!” Ruby chirped, already brushing past Weiss and out of the room to join Neo. Sighing again, Weiss followed the pair out into the corridor and to the front door.

“Okay, let’s get some clothes.” She slipped past her girlfriends to take the lead as they left the house. “And they’re going to be warm too, Neo, I don’t want you freezing whilst we’re in Atlas.”

* * *

“Do you just enjoy not listening to me?” Weiss groaned for the third time as they made their way back from the tailor. In hindsight, she could have been perhaps a little too insistent on what Neo wore, leading to this push back.

_ ‘I’m plenty warm.’  _ Neo shot back, a satisfied smirk playing across her lips.  _ ‘Besides, I look amazing.’  _ Weiss really couldn’t disagree with that, Neo looked gorgeous in her new clothes. Gone were the shredded trousers, replaced with a pristine cream pair, and her old boots that reached the knee had been done away with in favour of a pair of ankle boots. But really, it was the top half that drew the most attention.

“You could at least have picked something that covered your shoulders.” Weiss continued to gripe as Neo rolled her eyes which lit up with mischief.

_ ‘Why? Are you afraid people will find out about your thing for leaving marks?’  _ Ruby started giggling along with Neo as Weiss’ face turned scarlet and she tried and failed to articulate a rebuttal.

“Awww, don’t be mad, Princess.” Ruby simpered once she’d finished giggling and cosied up to the now pouting Faunus. “But you just look so cute when you’re pretending to be mad at us.”

“I’m not pretending! I really am mad.” Weiss squawked indignantly, convincing no one as her girlfriends burst into another fit of giggles. “Whatever…”

“I’m sorry, Weiss.” Ruby leaned down to press a kiss to Weiss’ cheek. “If it’s too much, we can tone down the teasing.”

“I never said that…” Weiss’ cheeks filled with heat as Neo guffawed silently and Ruby smiled indulgently at her. “But when we get to Atlas, I’m afraid we will have to tone down the PDA.”

“What?” Ruby’s smile slipped a little and she looked to Neo for support, only to see Neo nodding in agreement with Weiss. “But why?”

“Atlas... isn’t exactly well known for its tolerance of gay relationships.”

_ ‘It’s been a few years since I’ve been there, but last I recall homosexuality was still technically on the books as a misdemeanour.’ _ Neo added as Ruby looked more and more stricken.

“You won’t find anyone who’d actually enforce the law, at least unless they needed a convenient way to silence you.” Weiss scowled, remembering the articles she’d read during her digging into the SDC’s shady dealings back at Beacon. “Add on top of that the fact that we’re in a polyamorous Human-Faunus relationship…” Weiss didn’t need to finish the sentence, the other two could do it themselves.

“Atlas sounds like an awful place if it’s like that.” Ruby asserted firmly and Weiss couldn’t exactly disagree.

_ ‘It’s fine if you’re rich.’  _ There was a hint of bitterness in how sharply she formed her signs.  _ ‘Trust me, you do not want to be one of the have-nots down in Mantle.’ _

“Yes, well, much as I am loath to suggest it, it might be best if we keep things subtle whilst we’re there and fly under the radar.” Normally, Weiss wouldn’t care what people thought of her relationship, but this was different. Atlas was different.

“You really want to do that, Weiss? That doesn’t sound like the girl I know and love.” Ruby looked at her suspiciously and Weiss could swear she started sweating nervously under her girlfriend’s scrutiny.

“I…” Weiss briefly considered blowing off Ruby, but then remembered they were trying to be open, and it would be incredibly hypocritical of her to disapprove of Neo concealing things if she herself did. “I’m scared. Jacques Schnee has Atlas under his thumb and I’m not sure the leverage I have on him will be enough anymore, and don’t want to give him more rope to hang me with.”

_ ‘Why wouldn’t it be enough?’ _

“With the CCT down, there’s no way to spread the information effectively anymore. I could still release it in Atlas, but that wouldn’t nearly be enough. He’d find some way to have it suppressed.” A troubled frown twisted its way across Weiss’ face as she confessed her fears. “And I’m scared of what he might do to you, or anyone else I care about.”

“You really think he’d try to hurt us?”

“When I spoke to him last, I slighted him, insulted him and threatened him to his face.” Weiss replied despondently. “The man is a monster who had my wings removed as an infant. I wouldn’t put anything past him anymore.”

“Well, we’ll deal with him together. You’ve got us, your family and we’ll make sure he leaves us alone.” Ruby asserted firmly as they rounded the final corner and approached the house.

_ ‘It’ll be alright, Weiss.’  _ Neo joined in the reassurances.  _ ‘Jacques Schnee may be some super rich ass, but don’t count us out. We’re going up against an immortal who wants to wipe out humanity, he should be a cakewalk by comparison.’ _

“I suppose...” Despite Ruby and Neo’s confidence, Weiss still couldn’t quite shake the worry that something bad was going to happen and Jacques Schnee would be the cause of it.

As the three of them entered the house, Neo trotted off ahead.  _ ‘I’m going to show off to Nora, she’ll be so jealous!’  _ She told her girlfriends and blew them both a kiss.  _ ‘See you in a bit.’ _

“Do you think those two will ever stop trying to antagonise each other?” Weiss asked idly as she watched Neo skip away gleefully.

“Probably not.” Ruby agreed as they walked at a more leisurely pace into the living room. “I just hope they don’t end up trying to compete at something truly ridiculous.” When they entered the living room, they were greeted with a surprise. Oscar was sitting in one of the armchairs, and he seemed to have been waiting for them as he perked up when he saw them.

“Weiss, Ruby, can we talk for a moment?” He asked, his reedy voice belying an odd nervousness.

“Sure, Oscar.” Ruby trotted over to sit on one of the sofas, Weiss following and taking a seat beside her. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Well, it wasn’t exactly me who wanted to talk with you.” He grinned sheepishly and Weiss rolled her eyes. Of course Ozpin wouldn’t ask himself but get Oscar to do it for him, knowing they’d be more receptive to the young boy than him.

“Right, so what does Ozpin want?” Oscar closed his eyes at Weiss’ question and let Ozpin take over, his posture straightening up as it usually did whenever the former professor was in control.

“I wanted to talk to you both about Miss Neopolitan.” Weiss narrowed her eyes at the former headmaster.

“What about her?”

“It’s to do with the Maiden powers she inherited from Miss Fall.” Weiss felt Ruby tense beside her and was sure she’d done the same. “More specifically, that she inherited more than just the powers.”

“What do you mean?” Worry filled Ruby’s voice as she glanced back towards the stair, where the faint sounds of Nora could be heard.

“It’s not very well understood, but having spoken to other Maidens, it seems that a part of the previous Maiden’s soul is transferred along with the magic.”

“You mean…”

“In all likelihood, there is a part of Cinder Fall’s soul within Miss Neoploitan.” Weiss felt sick. A piece of that hateful woman still lived and even worse, it lived inside her beloved.

“So she’s got Cinder stuck in her head like you and Oscar?” Ozpin blinked placidly at Weiss’ angry growl.

“Nothing quite so dramatic. This would only be a sliver of Cinder Fall within Miss Neopolitan, but that doesn’t mean it won’t affect her, change her.” Ruby reached out to grab Weiss’ arm, gripping it hard with worry.

“When Neo lost her temper earlier, you don’t think…?”

“Maybe.” There was no maybe about it. If what Ozpin was telling them was true, then it would definitely explain Neo’s outburst earlier as a part of Cinder’s explosive temper affecting Neo. Scowling, Weiss refocused on Ozpin, who still maintained his calm demeanour. “Why didn’t you tell us this sooner?”

“I had hoped Miss Neopolitan wouldn’t be so affected. The influence of the Maidens’ souls varies from host to host. But after this morning’s training session and overhearing some of your conversation over lunch, it became clear to me that it was starting to affect Miss Neopolitan.”

“So why are you telling us and not her? Neo has the right to know what’s happening to her.”

“I felt that, given your relationship with Miss Neopolitan, you’d be best placed to inform her and give her comfort.” There was finally a flicker of emotion from Ozpin as he moved his hands into his lap and a small frown crossed his face. “I know from personal experience that having yourself forcibly merged with another can be, to put it bluntly, traumatising. To have your sense of self violated and not have any control over it, to feel like you’re losing a part of who you are. And to have that person you are merged with be Cinder Fall, even if it is just a small piece of her… I am certain Miss Neopolitan would rather hear it from you two than from me.”

The man had a point and Weiss felt a small stab of sympathy for him too. As frustrating and irksome as she found Ozpin and his methods, it was hard not to feel for him when he described his reincarnation like that.

“We’ll tell her.” Ruby spoke up, her voice quavering a little. “We’ll be there for her. She’ll always be our Neo, won’t she, Weiss?”

“Of course she will.” She said primly, already bracing herself for the conversation they were going to have to have.

“Well, I’ll leave that to you two, then.” Ozpin got to his feet and headed towards the kitchen. “If you will excuse me, I need to get some food for Oscar.”

Once Ozpin had left the room, Ruby immediately pulled in on herself and as close as she could into Weiss’ side. “How are we supposed to tell her, Weiss?” She asked, sounding as though she was on the edge of tears. “How do we tell her that there’s a part of Cinder inside her and that it’s going to change her?”

Weiss didn’t answer immediately, she couldn’t. “I don’t know, Liebling, I just don’t know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's going to be a fun conversation. Really how do you tell someone something like that? I see some angst from our favourite ice cream lover in the future. Also, Atlas sounds like a super fun place and totally not in need of radical social reform or anything. 
> 
> Also, I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and stopping me from releasing these early. Lots of thanks too to the lovely [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being relentlessly positive.


	6. Chapter 6

“I know Ozpin is right that it’ll sound better coming from us than him, but it still feels like he’s just passing the buck.” Weiss complained as she and Ruby ascended the stairs. They’d spent a good ten minutes talking in circles about how they were going to break the news to Neo that she had a bit of Cinder’s soul inside of her. Eventually, they decided they’d just tell her as simply as possibly. Trying to beat around the bush wouldn’t help anyone.

“It does a little.” Ruby conceded, still a little teary from earlier. “But we’ve gotta do it.”

“Right now though? We don’t have a plan of what we’re going to say or how to break it to her gently.”

“You said it yourself, Weiss, she deserves to know what’s happening to her.” Ruby halted at the top of the stairs and turned to face Weiss. “How do you think she’d feel if we didn’t tell her immediately just because we were afraid of a hard conversation?”

“She’d be angry that we hid something from her…” Weiss muttered, her wings fluttering uncomfortably as she was reminded that she was party to the secret of what truly happened down in the vault.

“Exactly. We need to tell her now. She’s our girlfriend and we need to communicate for things to work.” Ruby’s smile was a little forced, but still genuine, as all her smiles were and Weiss couldn’t help but smile a little in response.

“Since when did you become the smart one of the two of us?” She chuckled lightly and Ruby shrugged, blushing a little.

“I’ve been doing a lot of talking with Ren and Nora and getting their advice on stuff. They’ve got their relationship stuff pretty solid and have been together for pretty much forever, so I guess it must be rubbing off on me.” It was terrifying to think of Nora as a useful source of information given her propensity towards messing with people for fun. Like that time she somehow convinced Neo that with the ongoing crisis, ice cream would soon become rationed. But Weiss did have to admit that her and Ren’s relationship was incredibly stable, so they must be doing something right.

“Well, it’s a good thing one of us has it all together.”

“Noooo, Princess, you’re doing good too.” Ruby almost jumped on Weiss to pull her into a tight hug and nearly sent the pair tumbling down the stairs with her enthusiasm. “You’re so much better with talking and communicating now than when we first met, and you keep trying and improving.”

“It’s ‘doing well’, Liebling.” Weiss giggled, as she regained her balance and returned the hug. “Although I won’t deny I am doing good by being a huntress and protecting people.”

“That’s what I meant!” Ruby huffed, pulling away from the hug, her cheeks puffed adorably. “You okay now?”

Weiss sighed, wrapping her wings around herself and taking comfort in their feathery warmth. “I suppose.”

“Okay. Remember, we’re here for Neo, no matter what.” Weiss nodded and continued to follow Ruby as they hunted for Neo. It didn’t take too long for them to find her, as she was engaged in a slap fight with Nora in the upstairs living room whilst Ren and Jaune looked on with a combination of concern and amusement.

“Neo!” Weiss shrieked, marching over to the fighting girls and trying to get in between them. “What are you doing? You’ll get your new clothes dirty!” It took a lot of maneuvering, but she eventually managed to separate Neo and Nora and held them apart. “Why weren’t you two doing anything?”

“They wanted us to referee.” Ren shrugged, his face impassive as usual. At least Jaune had the grace to at least look a little guilty for not preventing the admittedly harmless fight. “Neo was showing off her new clothes and somehow that led into them fighting over ice cream flavour superiority. Again.”

“She won’t admit that syrup is the best flavour!” Nora hollered, flailing her arms fruitlessly at Neo.

”Nora, Neo is entitled to her opinion on what the best flavour of ice cream is, just like you are to yours, we’ve been over this.” Weiss groaned as she continued to hold the pair away from each other. “Now stop fighting. Ruby and I need to talk to Neo about something and we can’t do it with you fighting her.”

“Of course you can! It’s easy.”

“Nora, you do remember Neo can’t talk if her hands are occupied, right?” Ren intoned, still not making a move to intervene.

“Oh, right.” Nora ceased her flailing and flopped back onto the sofa. “Talk away, we can continue our duel later.”

“Um, we’re actually going to our room. Private triad thing.” Ruby piped up from where she hovered beside Jaune.

“Awwwwww, but I wanted to listen in.” Nora grumbled, folding her arms before a slightly evil glimmer sparked in her eyes. “Well, you’re not the only ones who can do private triad-ey things. Come on Ren, Jaune!”

“Wha-What!?” Jaune squawked as Nora launched herself over the back of the sofa to grab her teammates. Weiss could have sworn she heard a note of sadness in Jaune’s tone as he was hauled away by Nora. “We aren’t dating!”

“Pfft, doesn’t matter, just let me have this.” Nora crowed, and with Ren and Jaune in tow, she trotted out of the room, leaving behind a rather stunned Weiss and her girlfriends.

“Well, that was something.” Ruby finally broke the silence, scratching awkwardly at the back of her head.

_ ‘You said you needed to tell me something?’  _ Neo spoke for the first time, Weiss having relinquished her hold on the smaller girl, and she brushed herself off.

“Yes, we should speak in our room though, less chance of people just walking in on us and interrupting.” Leading the way, Ruby trotted off to their shared bedroom, Weiss and Neo close behind, the latter’s head cocked curiously. 

Once inside their room, Ruby gestured for Neo to sit on their makeshift double bed whilst she and Weiss pulled a couple of their desk chairs over to sit in front of their girlfriend.

_ ‘So, what did you want to tell me? Because this whole set up is making me kind of nervous.’  _ Neo grinned humorously in an attempt to belie the fact that she really was nervous, as evidenced by the slight tremble of her hands.

“Ozpin just told us something... something about the Maiden powers.” Weiss began, her voice surprisingly steady.

Neo blinked and frowned, the tremble in her hands becoming more pronounced.  _ ‘It’s something bad, isn’t it? That’s why he told you and not me, so you’d break the news gently or whatever. Am I dying? Is that it? Are these fucking powers killing me?’ _

“No! Nononono!” Ruby interjected quickly, waving her hands in a panic. “You’re not dying, that’s not it.”

_ ‘Then what is it?’  _ Neo looked wildly between her girlfriends, her nervousness fast becoming agitation.

“When you inherited the powers from Cinder, that’s not all that came with them.” Weiss spoke quickly, trying to keep the other two calm. “According to Ozpin, part of the previous Maiden’s soul is transferred as well.”

At first, Neo’s expression slipped from distress to horror, then it settled on something akin to nausea as she looked down at her hands.  _ ‘A piece of Cinder... of her soul… is inside me?’ _

“I’m sorry, Süße.” Weiss reached out to rest a hand on Neo’s knee, but she shifted out of reach.

_ ‘I-Is that why I’ve been feeling angry today? Why I feel this… hunger…’  _ Neo looked up at Weiss and Ruby, utterly distraught and pleading silently for them to tell her this was just a coincidence.

“Ozpin said that even though it’s only a fragment, it could still have an effect on you, on your personality…”Ruby mumbled, unable to meet Neo’s eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

Neo’s whole body was shaking now, tears starting to sparkle in her eyes before falling and making dark spots on her new trousers.  _ ‘Why? Why did this happen to me?’ _

“Neo…”

_ ‘I never wanted these powers, I shouldn’t even have them. I killed Cinder because it’s what she deserved, what justice demanded.’  _ Neo continued, not listening to Weiss’ attempts to comfort her.  _ ‘And now I’m cursed to carry a part of her with me forever on top of having some great destiny foisted upon me.’  _ Neo shot to her feet and stormed past her girlfriends to pace restlessly back and forth.

“I’m sorry…” Weiss repeated, looking helplessly over at Ruby for a moment and getting only a helpless shrug in response. There was a sudden slam, making both of them jump and look to Neo. Her fist was still resting against the wall, a large dent from its impact, and she was breathing hard.

After a moment, she retracted her fist, shaking it out before signing to Ruby and Weiss.  _ ‘I think I’d like to be alone now, please. I don’t want you to see me like this.’  _

Slowly and reluctantly, Weiss and Ruby got up, pausing beside Neo before they left the room. “If you want to talk, we’re here for you.” Neo nodded silently and the pair walked out, Weiss closing the door behind them and collapsing against it.

“She’s going to be okay, right?” Ruby asked timidly and much as Weiss would have loved to tell her that their partner and everything was going to be okay, she couldn’t lie to her.

“I don’t know, Liebling, I just don’t know.”

* * *

Over the next few days, Neo seemed to return to normal, though Weiss did note that she alternated between being snappier than usual and almost saccharine kindness. Weiss and Ruby tried their level best to help their girlfriend through her ordeal, but ultimately there was only so much they could do. How did you help someone who had the soul of someone as cruel and vile as Cinder Fall merged with them?

Weiss had even swallowed her pride and gone to Ozpin for help, hoping his centuries of experience both from being reincarnated and from dealing with Maidens would be of use. Sadly, he had little assistance to offer. According to him, there was no stopping or reversing it, and Neo would just have to learn to adapt to this personality shift.

Weiss would have liked to be able to ignore their obligations to the world as Neo worked through this change, but unfortunately, such a thing wasn’t possible, and said obligations had a messenger in the form of a perpetually drunk uncle.

“So, I imagine you’re all wondering why I gathered you here today.”

“Oh, not you too.” Yang groaned, burying her face in her hands. “Get to the point, please.”

They’d all assembled in the living room at Qrow’s behest, he’d been irritatingly vague in his call and only mentioned it had something to do with getting to Atlas. Slightly confusing to Weiss though, was the presence of both Blake and Ilia at the meeting.

Blake still hadn’t decided whether they were accompanying them to Atlas, even with repeated prodding from Weiss for an answer. Ilia had been splitting her time between working with Blake and with Yang, but Weiss had been under the impression she intended to remain with Ghira and Kali so Weiss was unsure why she was here.

“Alright, alright...” Qrow grumbled, irked that his attempt at theatrics had gone awry. “I spoke with some friends and I think I’ve got us a way into Atlas.” There was a round of approving sounds from the assembled teens and the centuries old man stuck inside the head of a teen.

“How do we get past the blockade, then?” Ren asked, his eyebrows raised and Qrow coughed awkwardly.

“That part is still up in the air, actually.” There was a loud groan from Nora as she flopped back in exasperation. “What do you lot know about Argus?”

“It’s a city on the north coast of Anima.” Jaune spoke up, to Weiss’ surprise. He’d also been somewhat withdrawn since the battle, though Weiss had left his care to Nora and Ren. “One of my sisters lives there. Sanctum Academy is there too, where Pyrrha trained.”

“Yeah, well it’s also the home of the largest Atlesian military base outside of the kingdom itself.” Qrow drawled, ignoring the shift in the room’s atmosphere at the mention of Pyrrha. “They wouldn’t just abandon it, and according to the few contacts I still have left in Anima, they’re still there.”

“So we’re just going to waltz up to the Argus military base and ask for passage into Atlas?” Weiss snarked. This was not one of their better plans. Somehow it ranked lower than Ruby’s idea to ride a Nevermore, and that had been spectacularly disastrous.

“Well, in the absence of anything better, it’s about the best we can do.” Looking around the room, nobody else seemed to have a better idea, so Weiss just sighed and gestured for Qrow to continue. “I’ve sent a letter to James. I don’t know when or even if it’ll make it to him, but it’s something. Anyway, I’m gonna go buy tickets for the train out to Argus tomorrow. I’m assuming everyone here is coming.”

“Actually…” Blake spoke up tentatively and Weiss’ heart clenched. This was it, Blake wasn’t coming with them. “I don’t know if I’ll be going with you to Atlas.”

“What!?” Ruby shot upright, eyes agog as she stared at Blake incredulously. Everyone else reacted in a similar, but much more reserved way. “Buy why?”

“I’ve got responsibilities to the new White Fang now. I’m supposed to be their leader.” As Blake spoke, it didn’t escape Weiss’ notice that they weren’t looking at Ruby. Instead, their eyes were firmly fixed on Yang, who was deliberately examining her nails and trying to look disinterested.

“I thought your dad was doing that.” Ruby said, halfway between a whine and a whimper. “We only just got back together, you can’t leave us now.”

“It’s not that I want to…” Yang’s head jerked up at this, though no one else seemed to notice. All their attention was on Blake. “But Dad has Menagerie to run. I can’t just force him to keep the White Fang running whilst I run off to Atlas.”

Weiss was very tempted to call Blake out for their excuses. She liked to think that she’d got to know Ghira rather well during her stay in Menagerie and she was certain he would not mind in the least, especially with him knowing what was at stake. Even their desire to hunt down Adam and avenge Sienna was starting to feel like an excuse.

“Please, Blake?” Weiss didn’t have to look to know that Blake was currently on the receiving end of one of Ruby’s infamous puppy pouts.

“I’ll… I’ll talk to Dad.” Blake eventually broke, unable to withstand the unstoppable force of Ruby.

“Greeeat, well let me know before 11 tomorrow whether you’re coming or not.” Qrow gravelled out, rolling his eyes and making Weiss seriously wonder what had happened to make him this jaded whenever something the least bit emotional happened. “Well, that was all I had to say, I’ll let you know once I’ve got the tickets when we head out, because there’s no way I’m getting anything but the cheapest I can.”

Finished with his announcement, Qrow sloped off, though Ren got up and hurried after him and Weiss could hear him continuing to question Qrow. “Surely getting to Atlas quickly is our priority?”

She was unable to hear Qrow’s response as they got out of earshot pretty quickly. After a moment of awkward silence, both Blake and Yang got up to go and almost collided with each other as they tried to make a swift exit, almost certainly trying to escape the room without having to talk to one another.

This was getting ridiculous. Weiss may not be able to help Neo as much as she liked, but perhaps she could talk some sense into Blake and Yang, or at the very least get them talking again. “Ruby, can you take care of Neo for a bit?”

“Sure, but where are you going?”

“To try to get Blake and Yang to deal with their issues.” Weiss told her, pressing a quick kiss to Ruby’s forehead before marching off after Blake and Yang. She had to be quick, or one of them might leave the house and force her into doing something drastic.

Fortunately, Yang hadn’t made it far and Weiss just caught a glimpse of Blake’s coat vanishing down the stairs as she grabbed Yang by the sleeve.

“Weiss?”

“Hello. We need to talk.” Weiss hauled the confused Yang behind her as she chased Blake down the stairs. “Blake Belladonna, get back here!” The cat Faunus paused in confusion at the foot of the stairs and looked up at Weiss as she crested the top. Their eyes then widened in shock and fear as Yang came into view behind Weiss and they looked for a moment as though they were about to flee.

“Blake, haven’t you run away from your problems enough yet?” Blake froze, then their posture slumped in surrender allowing Weiss to descend the stairs and catch up with them. “Good. Let’s go somewhere a little more private.”

Her reluctant charges in tow, Weiss chose the training room as an appropriate venue, shutting the door behind them with a solid thud and leaning up against it meaningfully.

“Weiss, what is this about?” Yang asked, her eyes flicking nervously over to Blake, who stood a conspicuous distance away from her.

“This is about getting you two on speaking terms again.” Weiss folded her arms authoritatively, looking between the now awkwardly shuffling pair. “It’s been a week since the battle and you two have barely talked, let alone had a conversation in all that time. You don’t even make eye contact anymore.”

“It’s not that simple…” Yang started, but Weiss interrupted her.

“I know, Yang. I’m not asking you to suddenly move past the hurt and get over it.” Blake winced to the side and Weiss gave her a look. “Yes, hurt. You may be my best friend, Blake, but we all know what you did hurt Yang, no matter the reasons you did it.”

Blake hung their head and nodded guiltily as Yang shot them a curious look. “Reasons?”

“You’d know if you actually talked. That’s on both of you.” Sighing, Weiss raised a hand to rub at the bridge of her nose whilst her wings flapped in discomfort. “If you both really think that you’re better off like this, dancing around each other, then I’ll back off. It’s up to you two whether you make up or not. But if Blake really isn’t coming with us, is this really how you want to leave things?”

Blake didn’t answer immediately, but they did, for the first time in days, look up and met Yang’s gaze as evenly as they could. “No, it isn’t.” Another moment, then Yang nodded in agreement, with something that looked suspiciously like unshed tears glittering in her eyes.

“Good, then I’ll leave you to it.” Weiss said primly, kicking off from the door to return to the main part of the house and her girlfriends. Just as she was about to leave, there was a call from Blake.

“Weiss, if you see him, could you please tell Qrow I will be coming to Atlas with you?” Not turning back, Weiss allowed herself a small smile. 

“Sure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Neo, she's got some stuff to work through, hopefully she won't end up doing something rash or dangerous. Soon be time to head up to Atlas and yay Blake is going with them! I do wonder about Ilia floating around though... Not much else to say really.
> 
> Also, I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being such a sweetheart. Lots of thanks too to the lovely [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being super supportive.


	7. Chapter 7

“You really don’t have to do this, Weiss.”

“I’ve already told you, I want to.” Weiss insisted, taking a sip of her mocha and setting her cup down on the table between her and Sun. The monkey Faunus had finally heard from the rest of his team the night before, and with Weiss and everyone else’s imminent departure for Atlas in a couple of days, they’d arranged to meet up with them the next morning at a nearby cafe.

“It’s my fault you left them alone for so long. The least I can do is to take the blame for it.”

“Weiss, it was my choice to go after Blake.” Sun shot back and Weiss rolled her eyes. They’d had this conversation over and over already, each one trying to take the blame for Sun abandoning his team. Instead of answering, Weiss took another sip of coffee and took a moment to enjoy how the slight bitterness mixed with the sweetness of the chocolate.

“When did they say they were going to get here?”

“They said about ten, but knowing them, they’ll be at least fifteen minutes late. Sage will have overslept, Scarlet will have taken ages getting his makeup juuuust right, and Neptune’s just slow.” Sun chuckled quietly, taking a gulp of his own drink.

Weiss was about to snark back about Sun’s own tendencies towards tardiness when her scroll buzzed in her pocket. Pulling it out, she was greeted with a photo from Ruby of her and Neo holding an extravagant milkshake with what looked like a slice of cake on top up to the camera.

Since Weiss was busy with Sun, Ruby had decided that she and Neo should go on a date, both to keep Neo’s mind off her slightly unstable emotions as well, as according to Ruby, working out who they were to each other without Weiss.

She’d been a little disappointed at first about being left out, but she sort of understood Ruby’s point. Ruby and Neo had been brought together through Weiss, and for the most part she’d been the centre of their interactions, so it made sense for them to go out without her and figure things out. It also helped that Ruby had promised to send her lots of photos of their date.

“Message from Neo or Ruby?” Weiss jerked in her seat and looked up guiltily at a smugly grinning Sun.

“Ruby, but how did you know?”

“You had that goofy ‘I’m stupidly in love with this dork’ look on your face you get whenever you think about Ruby or Neo.” Sun’s grin only grew wider as he used his tail to gesture with his cup.

“I do not!” Weiss protested hotly, painfully aware of the blush rising in her cheeks.

“And that’s your ‘I’m pretending to be mad to keep up appearances’ look.” Weiss did not deign to respond, instead folding her arms in a mock huff and turning her nose up at her tormentor, sending him into a fit of chuckles.

Once his laughter had subsided, Sun’s face took on a pensive look as he drank more of his coffee. “You know.” He began, once he’d finished and set his empty cup back down. “If someone had told me two years ago that I’d be drinking coffee with the Faunus ex-heiress to the SDC and have her as one of my best friends, I’d have laughed in their face.”

“Life does take us to strange places sometimes.” Weiss agreed, feeling oddly pleased to be referred to as one of Sun’s best friends. “I’ll admit, this is one of the last places I would have expected to find myself if I’d been asked back at the start of Beacon.”

“Yeah, I bet having two girlfriends certainly wasn’t on your agenda, what with how doggedly you were pursuing Neptune.”

“Don’t remind me.” Weiss groaned, burying her face in her hands at the mention of one of her more embarrassing decisions. “This is going to be so awkward.”

“Again, you could duck out. I’ll be fine, really.”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll manage, and I’ll even try not to be too rude to him about the ‘Ebony’ incident.” Sighing, Weiss drained the last of her mocha and set the cup down on its saucer. “Did he ever work out that was me, by the way?”

“I have no idea. You know Nep, he’s always been a little… self-absorbed.” Weiss thought that was putting it kindly as she checked her scroll for the time.

“It’s almost half past.” She grumbled, tucking the device away again. “Where are they?”

“I’m sure they’re just lost or something...” Sun pulled out his own scroll to check for any messages, but stopped with it half way out of his pocket as he noticed something over Weiss’ shoulder. “There they are. Hey, guys!”

Jumping to his feet, Sun started waving madly as Weiss swivelled in her seat to see the other three members of Team SSSN approaching their table. Sun’s happy grin at seeing his teammates again quickly faded as he noticed they weren’t returning it as they all grabbed chairs and sat down at the table.

“Hey, Sun.” Neptune spoke first, breaking the awkward silence that had settled over the group. “Long time no see.” Weiss winced a little, her wings fluttering uncomfortably as Sun smiled apologetically.

“Okay, I kinda deserved that.”

“Kinda? You vanished without a word for a whole fucking year and we only just heard from you yesterday!” Scarlet exploded, gesticulating wildly. “Where the fuck have you been and why do you have Weiss Schnee with you?”

“I’ve, um, I’ve been on Menagerie.” 

“Why?” Sage rumbled, sounding a lot more calm than the rest of his teammates and even placing a hand on Scarlet’s shoulder to try to calm him down.

“Because I asked him.” The young men turned to look at Weiss as she spoke up. Quailing a little under their attention, Weiss steeled herself. “After Beacon, I asked Sun to follow Blake for me because I was busy looking after Ruby and couldn’t go myself until she woke up.”

“So you asked someone else to abandon their teammates because you couldn’t abandon your own?” Scarlet sniped, now turning his ire on Weiss. “You know how fucking selfish you sound?”

“Hey, it was my choice to go. Her girlfriend was in a coma for weeks and Yang lost her arm, there was no way Weiss could just leave them like that.” Sun scowled at Scarlet whilst Neptune stared at Weiss agog.

“Girlfriend?!”

“Ruby and I have been dating for well over a year, but that’s irrelevant.” Waving off Neptune’s question Weiss focused on Sun. “And it’s still my fault. I’m the one who asked you to go, causality says that I’m the one to blame.”

“I would’ve gone anyway. Blake’s my friend and I wanted to help.”

“I thought we were your friends.” Weiss winced at Sage’s words as did Sun. “You left without a word. For all we knew, you were dead.” 

“Yeah, that was a pretty shitty thing for me to do. After telling Blake off for leaving without a word, despite doing the exact same thing.” Sun’s voice started to hitch at the end and it sounded as though he was on the edge of tears by the end. “I’m sorry. I’ve been an awful team leader and an even worse friend. I didn’t think about how what I was doing would affect you guys and I am so so sorry.”

“I’m sorry too. It  _ was  _ selfish of me to ask Sun to follow Blake for me.” Weiss added her own apology and although Scarlet’s glare didn’t lessen, Sage did give her a sympathetic look.

“Thank you, Weiss, I think we need to have a talk as a team. If you don’t mind?”

Shaking her head, Weiss got up and glanced over at Sun. “You’re still going to see us off, right?”

“Of course I am.”

“Then I’ll see you then.” With a small smile, Weiss started to walk away, but halted after a few metres as someone called out to her.

“Hey, Weiss!” Turning around, she was a little surprised to see Neptune jogging over to her. “I… er… Whilst we’re on the whole apology train, I wanted to say sorry. I was kind of a dick to you back at Beacon, especially when you were doing the whole, y’know, Ebony thing.”

“Oh, thanks.” Weiss blinked in surprise as Neptune scratched at the back of his head.

“So… Yeah… The guys kinda need me back there, so maybe I’ll see you around?”

“Maybe.” Neptune’s sheepish grin grew a little wider before he turned to jog back to his team, calling over his shoulder as he went.

“See ya, Weiss!” The Faunus waved a little before turning and starting to head back to the house. About halfway back, Weiss’ scroll buzzed again and she was greeted with another picture from Ruby, this time she and Neo’s mouths were smeared with cake and milkshake. That picture was then quickly followed by another, this time of Neo licking the sugary mixture off of Ruby’s bright red cheek. Weiss could feel the heat rising in her own face as she saved the pictures for later.

As she approached the house, Weiss was surprised to see someone with blue skin sitting on the front step, the sound of stifled sniffing drifting in the wind.

“Ilia?” The chameleon Faunus started and her head jerked up to look around wildly before she saw Weiss.

“Oh, hi, Weiss.” Ilia returned to staring down at her lap as Weiss walked over, her skin still resolutely blue. Weiss was painfully aware that she wasn’t at all close to Ilia, her own fault really for not trying, but she couldn’t just leave the upset girl like this.

“You mind if I sit?” Ilia didn’t answer, but she did shuffle over to allow Weiss to sit next to her. Smoothing her skirt back, Weiss sat down beside Ilia, keeping her wings carefully tucked away from the chameleon Faunus.

“Do you want to talk about it?” She asked after sitting there in silence for a little while.

“I don’t know…” Ilia mumbled, her fingers twisting uncomfortably in her lap. “Why do you even care? I know you don’t like me.”

“You’re clearly upset about something, I’m not just going to leave you alone like this.” Weiss’ stomach twisted guiltily at the call out. “And I’m sorry I haven’t gotten to know you better. Things have been a little difficult with Neo recently.”

“Sure…” Ilia returned to fidgeting with her fingers, the blue starting to fade a little from her skin. “I asked Yang something. It didn’t go well.”

“Did she get angry or something?” Weiss asked incredulously, Yang’s famously explosive temper had calmed down a lot in recent months and tended to only be unleashed upon Ozpin whenever he did something questionable.

“No, nothing like that...” The blue had completely gone from Ilia’s skin by now, but instead of returning to her normal honeyed skin tone it took on a light fuchsia hue. “I asked Yang out on a date.”

“Oh…” Weiss blinked in surprise. She knew Yang and Ilia had gotten close since the battle, and now that Blake and Yang were starting to talk normally again, all three of them had been spending time together. “I take it she didn’t say yes?”

“Yeah, It probably didn’t help that I kinda sold it as a polyamorous triad with Blake.”

Weiss wasn’t sure what she’d expected Ilia to say, but it certainly hadn’t been that. She opened and closed her mouth several times as she tried to think of what she could say. She was saved from having to though, as Ilia continued.

“It was dumb, really. I never stopped being in love with Blake, even after they broke up with me for Adam. The feelings just lay fallow until now, I guess. Knowing they never really liked him, and us working together the last couple of months kinda… reawakened them.”

“And Yang?” Weiss asked curiously at which Ilia just shrugged.

“You’ve seen her. She’s like the hottest person I’ve ever met. And it doesn’t hurt that her boobs are huge.” Weiss coughed loudly at Ilia’s description of Yang’s… assets. She did have to admit, however, the chameleon Faunus wasn’t wrong about Yang being very attractive. “And I thought we’d really bonded. She’s got this warmth to her, y’know?”

Weiss made a noise of agreement, knowing exactly what Ilia was referring to. “So what happened, exactly?”

“Not much, really. Yang and I were just finishing up sparring, so we were both really sweaty and she was just in her tank top.” Ilia let out a wistful sigh, her eyes glazed as she presumably recalled the admittedly rather attractive view of Yang fresh off a workout. “I just blurted it out. I wasn’t really thinking. It’s just… with Blake and Yang talking again, and seeing you and Ruby and Neo all dating each other and making things work... I thought… maybe I could have that with them.” Ilia’s dreamy expression turned despondent and Weiss was sorely tempted to wrap a wing around her, but refrained.

“She just gave me this look, like she was sorry for what she was about to do. She probably was too, because she’s just like that. Then she told me that she and Blake were only just on speaking terms and trying to rebuild their friendship, anything romantic was too far away, and she didn’t even know if that was even going to happen between them again.”

Ilia sighed deeply, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. “It wouldn’t have mattered anyway though. Apparently they had this discussion before they broke up, and they’re monogamous.”

“I’m sorry, Ilia.” Weiss murmured, deciding to hell with her hesitancy and laying a gentle wing against Ilia’s back.

“After I asked Yang, I considered just asking Blake out on their own. Just us, like the good old days. But I know they’re still in love with Yang, just like Yang is with them.” Ilia let out a watery laugh. “I should’ve known it wouldn’t work out. It feels like the universe is conspiring to keep me alone.”

“It’s not, that’s ridiculous.” Weiss told the upset Faunus firmly. “You’ll find someone, I’m sure of it.”

“Doesn’t really feel like it.” Ilia muttered sadly before stretching out and getting up. “I’m going to crash with Mrs Belladonna tonight. I don’t want to make things awkward here.”

“You wouldn’t.” Weiss tried to argue but Ilia shook her head.

“I know, but I think it would be for the best.” Ilia started to walk away, but paused and turned back to Weiss. “You’ll look after them, right? Blake and Yang.”

“Of course I will.”

“Don’t know what I’m worrying about if they’ve got you looking out for them. That Dust knight thing of yours seems very effective.” Weiss cocked her head in confusion at the other Faunus.

“Dust knight thing?”

“Back at the academy, that knight flying around was yours, wasn’t it?” Ilia looked equally confused and turned back to face Weiss properly.

“It was, but I don’t know where you’re getting the Dust part fro-.” Weiss paused mid-sentence, then proceeded to smack herself in the forehead. “I am such an idiot. How did I miss that?!”

“Miss what?” Ilia was starting to look concerned now as Weiss looked up at her.

“I have spent months trying to figure out what was happening with my summoning, why they would be made out of fire or whatever, and it turns out all this time I’ve been augmenting them with Dust like my glyphs  _ and I never realised _ .”

Groaning loudly, Weiss buried her face in her hands as Ilia started to chuckle quietly. “I’m glad I could be of help, then.” Still laughing, Weiss heard her turn and walk away from the house. “I’m going to go see if Mrs Belladonna needs any help. See you, Weiss.”

Without looking up, Weiss raised a hand to wave goodbye to Ilia before returning it to her face. Gods, she was dumb for not realising sooner. At least she’d finally worked it out and could hopefully replicate it now. Winter would be so jealous if when she found out Weiss had pushed her summoning beyond Winter’s own.

It had been a long time since Weiss had thought about Winter. She’d been so wrapped up in so many other things, she hadn’t even spared her sister a thought. A small stab of guilt wormed its way into her head. Some sister she was, not thinking about Winter for so long.

Still, they were headed to Atlas soon. Winter would almost certainly be there, since Ironwood had recalled pretty much everyone in the military. Come to think of it, she hadn’t heard from Winter since before her wings were exposed to the world. What did Winter think of her now? Would she be proud of the person Weiss had become?

“Uhhh, Weiss? Whatcha doing down there?” Weiss’ thoughts of her sister were interrupted by a voice from up above and she looked up to see her girlfriends hovering above her in concern.

“Just thinking.” Reaching up, Weiss accepted a hand up from Ruby, brushing herself off once they were upright. “How was the date?”

_ ‘Great! We went to this cool diner place and got this massive milkshake to share.’  _ Neo informed her gleefully before skipping into the house, Weiss hanging back with Ruby for a moment.

“How was she?” she asked quietly and Ruby frowned a little.

“I think she’s getting better. She didn’t have nearly as many mood swings and she only really lost her temper once when they said they were out of strawberries for the milkshakes.” Ruby sighed sadly nudging up against Weiss. “I’m so scared for her. What if she never learns to control it and Cinder’s influence drives her away from us or something?”

“She’s strong, she always has been. We just have to have faith and support her whenever we can.” Ruby nodded against her and the pair made their way into the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry! Please don't hate me, I had the the thing with Ilia planned for months now. In hindsight, probably should have seen people shipping her with Blake and Yang coming. If it's any consolation, I do feel pretty bad about doing this to Ilia and she will be okay in time. On the positive side, Weiss has finally worked out what was up with her summons, honestly I figured it was a logical extension of her Dust use.
> 
> Also, I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and putting in so much work on my stuff. Lots of thanks too to the lovely [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being so sweet.


	8. Chapter 8

The day of their departure for Argus arrived and was predictably chaotic.

“Nora! Did you remember to pack your spare grenades?” Jaune’s voice echoed down the corridor as Weiss chivvied her own girlfriends along.

“Honestly, Neo, I know you moved rooms, but how did you leave so much of your stuff in Yang’s room?” She grumbled, blushing furiously as she was forced to handle Neo’s underwear to stuff it into one of the large bags they’d acquired for the trip.

_ ‘I don’t know, it just happened.’  _ The pastel girl claimed, though she did sport a gleeful smirk as she watched Weiss struggle with finishing packing.

“Things don’t just happen you know.” Weiss snarked back, zipping up the bag and turning her attention to Ruby. “Have you finished with your ammo yet?”

“I don’t know what I’ll need moooooore.” Ruby whined, holding up two boxes of bullets. “Lightning or Gravity?”

“Pack the Lightning, I’ve got more than enough Gravity Dust to compensate.” Turning to her own neatly packed bags, Weiss checked to make sure that was indeed the case, and that the list on her scroll was accurate. “I do wish the two of you would be more organised. Even Yang was all packed and ready last night.”

_ ‘Well, I’m sorry we don’t live up to your exacting standards, Ice Queen.’  _ Neo snapped at Weiss before her face blanched and her eyes flickered to white.  _ ‘I-I’m sorry.’ _

“Hey, it’s okay, Süße.” Weiss quickly abandoned her things to pull Neo into a tight hug, and was joined a moment later by Ruby. “Shhhh, it’s okay…”

Neo sniffled and buried her face into Ruby’s neck, as best she could given their height difference, whilst Weiss hugged her from behind and stroked her hair comfortingly. These outbursts from Neo weren’t exactly frequent, but they’d happened often enough that some of the others had started to notice.

Weiss and Ruby had advocated for telling the others about it, but Neo had been vehemently against it. She’d said she didn’t want their pity, but Weiss got the impression there was more to it than that.

After a little while, Neo squirmed out of the group hug, swiping at her face with a gloved hand to get rid of any lingering tears.  _ ‘I’m fine now.’  _

“You sure?” Ruby murmured, her hands still keeping contact with Neo.

_ ‘Yes, I’m sure.’  _ Neo didn’t look particularly fine, but she looked too delicate to be pushed on the matter right now.  _ ‘Is there anything else we need to pack?’ _

Shooting Ruby a meaningful glance to tell her they were going to follow this up later, Weiss checked her list again. “That’s pretty much everything, I think. Have you got your spare moon clips, Neo?” The shorter girl nodded and patted a small pouch on the side of her belt. “Good, that’s everything on the list.” Weiss made a show of checking the item off her list before stowing her scroll.

Picking up one of the bags and hefting it onto her shoulder, Weiss gave the room a last once over before heading out and downstairs, her girlfriends in tow with their own luggage. Qrow and the others were gathered downstairs, a small pile of bags and cases accumulating in the middle of the room.

“Took you three long enough. Thought you were busy packing up the whole house or something.” Weiss tactfully ignored Qrow’s jab as she dropped her bag with the others and looked around the assembled group. Everyone who was going to Atlas was present. Oscar stood off to one side, far away from Nora, who was gesturing animatedly, nearly smacking Jaune and Ren in face with her wild hand movements. Blake and Yang were present too, talking quietly to one another. Weiss was very pleased that the two had finally gotten past their initial hesitance and were talking like normal people, and it didn’t go unnoticed to her that Blake had started wearing their jet necklace again.

“Okay, we’re all here, good. Let’s get a move on, people, the train leaves in a little over an hour and we are not missing it.” Qrow grumbled, shouldering a bag that looked far too small to hold all his belongings and waved for everyone else to do the same. Slowly, the assembled teens picked up their things and followed Qrow to the front door.

“Ya know, we had some fun times here.” Nora commented as they all trooped down the hallway.

“I guess we did, didn’t we?” Jaune agreed, glancing back at the living room one last time. “It’s actually a little sad to leave.”

“That’s the life of a hunter sometimes, kid.” Qrow gravelled as they stepped out into the late morning sunshine. “You can end up travelling all across the world sometimes to do jobs. Course, you could stick around one area, but who wants to do that when you’ve got a whole world to explore and protect?”

“Hey, Blake, I thought your parents were seeing us off.” Yang looked around in confusion for the older Faunus as she came around the corner, wheeling her bike.

“They are, they’re meeting us at the station with Ilia and Sun.” Weiss could’ve sworn she saw Yang grimace uncomfortably for a moment at the mention of Ilia, but she brightened back up.

“Okay, cool. I’m glad they’re seeing you off.”

“Not just me, Weiss too.” This was the first Weiss had heard of this, and she blinked in surprise.

“Me? But why? I’ve barely seen them whilst they’ve been here.” She protested, and was met with a deadpan look from Blake.

“Weiss, you are aware that Mom has all but adopted you as her daughter, right?” Weiss was very much not aware of this, unlike the blush that filled her cheeks. That she was very aware of.

“What?!” She was just able to squeak out, to raucous laughter from Nora and a gleeful smirk from Neo.

_ ‘You seriously didn’t notice that?’  _ Neo asked, clearly enjoying Weiss’ embarrassment far too much.  _ ‘We stayed at her house for months and you didn’t pick up on how fond Kali is of you?’ _

“Don’t you start, Neo, Mom’s adopted you too.” Neo rounded on Blake, eyes wide with shock as Nora doubled over laughing.

_ ‘She what?! And since when did you speak ASL?’ _

“Since you left, I had Mom teach me. I’m nowhere near fluent yet, but It seemed like a useful thing to know.” Blake smirked at the still stunned pastel girl. “And as for the first bit, you said it yourself, you lived with us for months and Mom likes you a lot.” It was now Neo’s turn to blush and she proceeded to bury her face into Weiss’ side whilst Ren quietly scolded Nora for laughing so much.

“You okay there, Süße?” Weiss asked, having recovered enough from the initial mortification of being told her best friend’s mother viewed her as a daughter. Neo nodded against her, but refused to let go for a while as they made their way towards Mistral’s train station.

Weiss hadn’t been to the Mistral Central Station before, not having any real reason to until today. The main hall was massive, bigger than the entrance hall at the academy, complete with a second storey and shops lining the walls. At the centre of it all stood a large fountain depicting two dragons twisting and twining together, and at the foot of it waited Mr and Mrs Belladonna.

Handing their bag off to Jaune, who staggered under the unexpected weight, Blake darted forwards to pull their parents into a tight hug whilst the others walked over at a more leisurely pace.

“Hey, Chief, Mrs Chief.” Qrow drawled out once he got close enough and Blake had released their parents. “I thought there’d be more than just the two of you.”

“Sun and Ilia are around somewhere. I think Sun said something about getting some food upstairs.” Kali answered politely, though she rolled her eyes at Qrow’s nickname for her.

“Right, well, I’m off to check where our train’s at.” Qrow extended a hand to the two older Faunus. “It was good meeting you both.”

“Likewise.” Ghira took the offered hand and shook it firmly. “Good luck, all of you.”

“Make sure Blake doesn’t get into any trouble.” Kali added as she shook Qrow’s hand too, the lanky man slouching off once she’d let go. One by one, the others all said their goodbyes to the Belladonnas before following after Qrow, leaving behind Blake, Weiss and Neo.

“I’m sorry I’m leaving you again.” Blake mumbled, gently nuzzling into their mother’s side.

“I know, dear, but it won’t be forever, and you’re doing something important. You’re helping save the world.” Kali reassured them, stroking Blake’s hair and scratching lightly at the base of their ears. Ghira, meanwhile, had turned his attention to Weiss and Neo and pulled the two into a hug.

“Goodbye. You two look after each other and stay safe.”

“We’ll try.” Weiss promised, Neo nodding along in agreement as Ghira let go. “Though I don’t think our choice of career really lends itself to staying safe.”

“I know, I know.” Ghira chuckled, trying to remain collected as some tears started forming in his eyes. “But let an old man worry.”

“You’re not that old, Dad.” Blake insisted, having extracted themselves from their mother’s petting to give him one more hug. Weiss smiled softly at the display before getting pulled into a hug tight enough to rival one of Yang’s.

“Goodbye, Weiss. I know going back to Atlas is difficult for you. Just remember, you’ll always have a home on Menagerie with us.” Kali released Weiss from her crushing hug, tears flowing from her eyes as well. “You too, Neo.” Neo smiled warmly at the older cat Faunus before she too was pulled into a hug.

“You sure you’re okay running things whilst I’m gone, Dad?”

“I already told you, sweetie, you take as long as you need.” Ghira reassured Blake, patting them on the shoulder. “We’ll wait here so we don’t get in the way when you say goodbye to Sun and Ilia.”

“Okay, then.” Blake gave their parents another smile, sniffing a little and swiping at their eyes. “Bye, Mom, bye, Dad. I love you.”

“Love you too, sweetie.” Kali pulled into Ghira’s side for comfort, not even bothering to hide her tears. “You two as well. Please, do try to stay safe.” Fighting back some tears of her own, Weiss nodded, and with a final wave, she, Neo and Blake left the elder Belladonnas, heading off in the same direction as Qrow and the others.

“You sure you still want to come?” Weiss broke the melancholic silence, looking over at Blake, who was still blinking away tears.

“I am.” Blake’s voice quavered a little, but ultimately held firm. “I love my parents and I hate to leave them now that we’ve reconnected, but being with you, with Team RWBY, that’s where I’m meant to be. You’re my family too, my home.”

Weiss didn’t reply. Instead, she reached out with a wing to pull Blake into her side for a hug, and after a moment’s hesitation, Neo joined them as well. A concern that had been digging into the back of Weiss’ head since they’d left the house demanded to be heard.

“Blake, you don’t find it awkward that Kali thinks of me and Neo as her daughters, right?” Blake pulled out of the hug to look curiously at Weiss.

“Should I?”

“Maybe?” Weiss shrugged, not entirely sure of how normal family relationships were supposed to work. “You only recently reconnected with your mother. and now she apparently sees us as her children as well.” Weiss gestured between herself and Neo who frowned but nodded along with Weiss’ words.

_ ‘Don’t you mind pretty much sharing your mom?’ _

“Sorry, I didn’t get that middle bit. What am I supposed to mind?”

“Sharing her.” Weiss translated and Blake snorted, wiping away the last of their tears.

“No. I mean, it’s not really sharing, is it?” Weiss wasn’t sure what Blake meant by that, and it must have shown, as they elaborated. “Your love for Ruby isn’t lessened because you love each other, is it? Do you have a finite amount of love you share between the three of you?” Both Weiss and Neo shook their heads. “It’s that simple. I know Mom doesn’t love me any less because she loves you. And besides, we’re sisters.”

Smiling warmly at Weiss, Blake nudged her side playfully then looked around the hall. “Mom said something about Sun going upstairs…” As they turned on the spot, looking for the monkey Faunus, a call rang out from above them and, speak of the god of darkness, there was Sun waving down at them from a balcony, Ilia by his side.

_ ‘I’ve actually already said my goodbye to Sun. I’m going to go catch up with the others.’  _ Taking Weiss’ bag from her, Neo trotted off whilst Weiss and Blake ascended the escalators to meet the other two Faunus.

“Hey, Blake, Weiss.” Sun chirped whilst Ilia waved from behind him. “All ready to head off to Atlas?”

“Pretty much, everyone’s packed and loaded.” Blake dithered for a moment, then launched themselves at Sun, wrapping their arms around his neck and pulling him into a hug. “Thank you, Sun. For everything.”

A quite bewildered Sun patted Blake on the back as Weiss looked to Ilia. “I assume you’re fine not getting a hug from me.” The chameleon Faunus nodded, though she looked pretty amused by the whole situation.

“So, what’s next on the cards for you, Sun?” Weiss asked once Blake had released him from their hold.

“We are going to Vacuo.” A voice spoke from behind Weiss, making her jump and whirl around. “Whoa whoa, easy, Weiss.” Neptune yelped, leaping back from Weiss as she raised her fists defensively.

“Neptune! Don’t sneak up on people like that!”

“I-I got that.” The blue-haired young man muttered, smoothing out his jacket and composing himself whilst the others laughed at his plight.

“You’re going to Vacuo, then?”

“Well, with Haven kind of in a mess we gotta transfer somewhere, and home’s not a bad place to go. Besides, I have been an awful team leader and I need to step up.” Sun scratched at the back of his head as Neptune nodded along.

“Yep, that’s why I’m here, just making sure our scatterbrained friend doesn’t find somebody else in need of help and go running off after them.” Weiss and Blake winced at the jab, as did Sun, who looked incredibly sheepish but did not deny the accusation.

“Well, I hope things work out for you there.” Weiss told Sun, reaching up to pull him into a hug whilst Blake moved aside to talk to Ilia quietly. “Oh, if you see Coco and the rest of CFVY there, can you tell them we’re all okay?”

“I’ll be sure to pass the message on.” He assured her, pulling back and ruffling Weiss’ hair, much to her annoyance. Huffing in mock irritation and smoothing out her hair, Weiss caught the end of Blake’s conversation with Ilia.

“You sure you don’t want to say goodbye to Yang? I thought you two hit it off?”

“We did. But it’s fine, I’ve already said goodbye to her.” Ilia deflected clumsily, and it looked like Blake was going to pursue it, so Weiss quickly stepped over.

“Well, I guess this is goodbye, Ilia.” The chameleon Faunus’ eyes flashed with gratitude as she shook Weiss’ proffered hand.

“Goodbye, Weiss. I’m kind of sorry we didn’t get to talk much. I would’ve liked to meet the real Weiss Schnee properly.”

“Life gets in the way sometimes.” Weiss shrugged. Ilia was right though, it would’ve been good to get to know each other at least a little better. “Take care of yourself.”

“You too, both of you.” Ilia looked between Weiss and Blake in concern. “Atlas is not a safe place to be a Faunus, trust me.”

“We’ve met General Ironwood and he seemed to be on the level when it comes to the Faunus.”

“The General may be, I don’t know for sure. But if he is, it certainly hasn’t filtered down to the lower ranks. Take it from a Faunus who comes from Atlas, whose parents died in the mines. People up there hate us and will take any opportunity to remind us of it.”

The conviction with which Ilia spoke actually started to give Weiss concern and she shot a nervous glance at Blake, who looked similarly off-put. “Thanks for the warning, Ilia.”

“Yeah, well, it’s the least I can do.” Ilia shrugged, blushing a little and stuffing her hands into her pockets.

With one last hug from Sun for the both of them, Weiss and Blake headed back downstairs, waving goodbye until they were out of sight. “Do you think Ilia’s right? About Atlas being so hostile?”

Blake hummed in thought, their forehead wrinkling as they frowned. “I don’t have any reason not to believe her. If she says it’s that bad, then it very well could be. We both know Atlas isn’t kind to Faunus, your  _ family  _ isn’t kind to them.” Weiss winced at the reminder of her family’s legacy of oppression, both through Jacques Schnee and her grandfather.

“So you think we should tread carefully?”

“I think we should play it by ear. I have no intention of hiding who I am anymore.” Blake wiggled their ears for emphasis, making their piercings click against one another. “And I refuse to just stand by silently. But if it’s a matter of life and death, perhaps it may be better to err on the side of caution.”

“Agreed.” Weiss nodded only a little reluctantly as they reached the ground floor and looked around. “So, how do we find the others?”

“Well, if I had to guess…” Blake paused, their ears twisting back and forth until they zeroed in on something. “We follow the sound of Nora’s hollering.” Sure enough, Weiss could just about hear Nora’s dulcet tones over the sounds of the crowd.

Following Blake’s ears, the pair wound their way through the crowd until they found their group settled on a group of benches, talking to a couple of men who had the sort of overconfident smarmy look that Weiss had learned to despise and avoid.

Thankfully, the pair scurried off after some words from Qrow, leaving the group in peace as Blake and Weiss approached.

“There you two are. Say all your goodbyes and stuff?” Qrow drawled, after taking a swig from his hip flask, which Weiss frowned at.

“Yes, we did. Everything loaded that needs to be?”

“Bumblebee’s on board.” Yang confirmed, relaxing comfortably on one of the benches and moving over to let Blake sit beside her. Looking around the group, however, Weiss noticed a conspicuous absence.

“Where’s Ruby?”

“I dunno, as we were walking here she spotted something and then zoomed off like she always does, leaving me with her bag.” Qrow grumbled, rolling his eyes at his niece’s antics.

“Well, I hope she doesn’t take too long.” Weiss fretted, already looking around for her missing girlfriend.

“She’ll be fine, Weiss.” Nora reassured her from her position, draped over Ren and Jaune’s laps. “You really do worry too much.”

“Well, excuse me for being concerned about people I care about, especially when we’re headed to Atlas of all places.” Weiss shot back. She was saved from Nora’s own retort by a flurry of rose petals and a joyous shriek.

“I’m baaaaaack!” The mass of petals reformed into a happy and bouncy Ruby, who held her hands behind her back as though she was hiding something from them.

“There you are.” Weiss sighed in relief, pulling her girlfriend into a hug.

“I was only gone for ten minutes.” Ruby cocked her head in confusion.

“Well, I missed you.” Weiss pouted and nuzzled into Ruby’s neck, earning a stifled noise of disgust from Qrow and a less stifled one from Yang.

“Get a room, you two! And you can take your gremlin with you.” She jibed with a wide smirk. “So whatcha hiding there, Rubes?”

Releasing her girlfriend, Weiss tried to lean around to see what Ruby was hiding, since she was interested too, only for Ruby to dart back with a playful grin.

“Weeeeell, I was thinking about something Weiss and Neo told me about a week ago, so I got us all some presents!” With a flourish, Ruby produced a paper bag from behind her back, bearing the logo of the Mistral Central Station Gift shop.

_ 'You got us a bag as a present?’  _ Neo snarked and received a pout from Ruby in return.

“It’s what’s inside the bag, dummy.” Prancing around the group, Ruby reached into the bag and handed something to each of Yang, Blake and Neo, handing the last one to Weiss. “I got us team bracelets!”

Sure enough, Ruby had handed each member of the team plus Neo a rainbow bracelet with their initial stamped on a larger bead in the centre.

_ 'Ruby, you do know what rainbows mean, particularly in Atlas?'  _ Neo asked, and Weiss had to translate for a confused Yang and a slightly lost Blake.

“Well, yeah. That’s why I got them.” Ruby said simply with a wide innocent smile. “You and Weiss said we should tone things down because they don’t really like gay stuff up there, but I don’t want to. I love my girlfriends and I don’t think we should hide who we are. Weiss and Blake aren’t hiding that they’re Faunus, and they’re even worse about that, so why should we hide this?”

Weiss grimaced and shot a look at Blake, who had a similar look on their face. After Ilia’s rather dire warning about Atlas, Weiss wasn’t all that eager to draw even more attention to herself. Yang, however, was already putting hers on.

“Well, I’m sold.” She grinned lazily at the group. “Come on, let’s show some pride and team spirit.” Neo was next to put hers on, unable to withstand the pleading pout Ruby gave her.

“Come on, Weiss, Blake. It’s doubly appropriate, since we’re Team RYNBW now!” There was no real way Weiss was ever going to be able to refuse a request like this from Ruby, so with a small amount of reluctance, Weiss put on the bracelet and Blake followed suit.

“Yay!” Ruby cheered gleefully and enveloped Weiss in a hug, just as Nora chose this moment to speak up.

“Of course you guys get to have Neo! We could have been Team NNJR, that would have been so cool!” She complained, flailing so much she nearly fell off her teammate’s laps.

“Neo’s our girlfriend, so she’s on our team.” Ruby fired back, breaking off the hug with Weiss to argue with Nora. Shaking her head, Weiss examined her bracelet again. It did feel nice to have something that marked them out as a team, as special to one another. She only hoped it wouldn’t bring them any more trouble than they normally brought upon themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goodbyes are always kind of bittersweet I find, so we get a mostly fluffy and feelsy chapter. I'm kinda sad to see the Belladonnas, Sun and Ilia go, but they may return in future. Also, pride bracelets are cool and make a neat little substitute for friendship ones. And as a side note: NNJR is pronounced 'ninja' and don't listen to Vicky if she tries to say otherwise.
> 
> Also, I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading despite disagreeing about how NNJR should be pronounced. Lots of thanks too to the lovely [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being a total sweetheart.


	9. Chapter 9

“How long is it gonna take us to get to Argus, anyway?” Ruby asked the room as she flopped back on Weiss’ bunk. The Argus Limited had departed Mistral a couple of hours ago. It was almost noon now and it seemed boredom was starting to set in.

“We should be there by the evening.” Weiss supplied, looking up from her borrowed book at her girlfriend. The newly minted Team RYNBW had been assigned a sleeper cabin, much to Weiss’ confusion, since the journey was only a matter of hours. Yang didn’t seem to be complaining though, as she took advantage of the journey to have a nap whilst Neo helped Blake expand their ASL vocabulary.

Despite her best intentions from earlier, Weiss hadn’t yet had a chance to bring up Neo’s ‘episode’ with her girlfriends. She wouldn’t say it was getting out of hand yet, but it was beginning to seriously concern Weiss, especially with how reluctant Neo was to tell anyone else about it.

As she wondered how she could get them alone together to talk about it, the opportunity was given to her by a loud rumbling from Ruby’s stomach.

“He he. Guess it’s time for lunch.” She commented, pulling herself upright and hopping to her feet. “Anyone else hungry?”

“I’m fine, thanks.” Blake said, and there was no response from Yang beyond a quiet snoring. Neo, however, nodded and got up, flashing a quick message to Blake on their scroll. Quickly closing her book, Weiss followed after her girlfriends out of the room to find the dining car.

“Ugh, this is boring.” Ruby complained as they walked up the train. “It feels like we’ve been cooped up for ages and I don’t like it.”

 _‘Well, I have an idea for something we can do on the way.’_ Neo suggested with an impish grin.

“Ooh, what?” Neo simply reached out and lightly tapped Ruby on the arm.

 _‘Tag, you’re it!’_ Before Neo’s action had fully registered, the pastel girl was off running from them, and an evil smile spread across Ruby’s face as she looked at Weiss.

“Oh no, don’t you dare.” She warned, backing away her mischievous girlfriend, who approached her menacingly. With a sudden yell, Ruby launched herself at Weiss, arms flailing in a wild attempt to tag the Faunus, but Weiss had successfully lunged out of the way and was off after Neo.

“Weiss! Get back here and let me tag you!” Ruby called after her, and Weiss could hear her girlfriend’s feet pounding behind her.

“Not happening!” She called back with a laugh as she redoubled her efforts to catch up with Neo. What was that rather callous saying? ‘I don’t need to be able to outrun a Beowolf, I just need to outrun you’ or something along those lines. A mean sentiment, yet oddly applicable in this scenario.

With a terrified squeal, Weiss burst from one carriage out into the cold air before dashing into the next. Only a few feet ahead of her was Neo, the pastel girl having stopped for a breather and her eyes growing wide as Weiss stumbled in and past her. Giggling madly now, Weiss kept running as she heard Ruby come crashing into the carriage behind them and shout in excitement as she noticed Neo running after Weiss.

The trio dodged between other passengers, laughing increasingly hard as they did so, and they eventually crashed into the dining car, where Weiss and Neo finally came to a halt. Ruby however, did not and bowled right into her girlfriends, sending them all tumbling to the floor.

As they lay there in a giggling heap, there was a familiar disapproving cough from above them. “You know, you’re supposed to be mature or something.”

“Uncle Qrow?” Ruby was the first to get to her feet, all laughter gone from her voice as she got up to look at her uncle. Weiss wasn’t sure what she was more surprised by, that the train had a functional bar or that Qrow appeared to be on his fifth drink of the journey.

Not saying another word, Ruby edged around Qrow and made her way further into the dining car with Neo trotting after her, leaving Weiss with Qrow.

“Really, Qrow?” She sighed and shook her head at the ostensibly responsible adult. “I thought you’d be above this level of day drinking.”

“Hey, I don’t begrudge you your coping mechanisms, Mini Ice Queen.” Qrow’s voice was slightly slurred as he gestured at Weiss with his glass. “Maybe you should give it a try, loosen you up a little and take the edge off of everything.”

“I don’t think so.” Weiss sniffed disdainfully. Her mother had told her that once, that a glass of wine took the edge off the end of the day. Of course, that glass eventually became a bottle, and the wine eventually became vodka.

Weiss would have thought by now Qrow would understand that she did not want to drink and none of his attempts to persuade her would change her mind. Shaking her head, she followed after her girlfriends to one of the booths further down the carriage and left the man to his ‘coping mechanism’.

“Please don’t just order from the dessert menu.” She chided, gently tugging the menu out of Neo’s hands and trying to hand her the actual menu, but the pastel girl didn’t take it, instead scowling up at Weiss.

 _‘I’ll eat what I want. I’m a responsible adult who happens to be the oldest, and if I want to just eat ice cream for lunch, then I’m going to eat ice cream for lunch.’_ The movements of her hands were sharp and irritable, but what really worried Weiss was the faint glow in Neo’s eyes, the flickering power there that begged to be unleashed.

“Neo...” Ruby mumbled soothingly to their girlfriend, stroking at her arm. Once again, just like that morning, the anger was gone in an instant and was replaced with fearful remorse.

 _‘I’m sorry.’_ She signed guiltily as she started to slide away. _‘I should go take a nap or something.’_

“No, Neo don’t go.” Weiss leaned over the table to catch her by the arm before she could make her escape. “Stay, please. We need to talk about this. Properly.”

Reluctantly, Neo slid back into the booth and instinctively cosied up to Ruby. _‘I didn’t mean it, I really didn’t.’_

“I know, Süße, but that was the second outburst today. I’m worried about you, _we’re_ worried about you.” Ruby nodded, carefully removing Neo’s bowler so she could pet her multicoloured hair.

“We want to help, Sweetheart, but we can’t if you keep pushing us away whenever something like this happens and you refuse to talk about it.” Ruby backed up Weiss’ insistence, scratching at Neo’s scalp.

 _‘I don’t want to talk about it because it scares me.’_ Neo finally answered, the uncertainty in her expression mirrored in her signs. _‘I’m not the same girl you fell in love with. I’ve been changed, and not for the better.’_

“People change all the time.” Weiss pointed out, her fingers tapping anxiously on the table. “I certainly have, and so has Ruby.”

 _‘That’s different though. This was forced upon me and I have no control over it. It’s not like I hear Cinder’s voice in my head and I can block it out. It’s me, but it’s also not.’_ Neo sat up, pulling away from Ruby to sign properly. _‘When I get angry, it is me. I am actually upset, but then I start spiralling, and I only realise it’s that part of Cinder after it’s happened.’_

“Neo, we know you don’t really mean it when you get angry like that.” Weiss tried to reassure Neo. “But none of the others do.” They could all remember vividly one such instance where Neo had lost her temper with Nora over another occasion of ice cream theft that up until that incident had been pretty commonplace between the two of them.

 _‘I don’t want them to know.’_ Neo’s jaw was set in a stubborn pout. _‘They’ll just pity me.’_

Ruby cocked her head at Neo, frowning curiously. “They won’t, and even if they do, is it so bad?”

“Süße, you’ve been forced into a bad situation, they’re being sympathetic and want to help.” Weiss agreed with Ruby as Neo shuffled uncomfortably. “And I think they can, Yang in particular.”

_‘How?’_

“Yang’s been working on meditation and controlling her temper. It could help with your outbursts. It couldn’t hurt.” Weiss smiled encouragingly at Neo, but was surprised that it wasn’t returned.

 _‘That might work for the anger, but what about the other things?’_

“What other things?” A fresh note of worry entered Ruby’s voice.

 _‘Cinder wasn’t just angry, she was manipulative and cruel. What if those parts of her affect me too? What if they’re already affecting me?’_ Neo’s signs grew more and more frantic. _‘I could be using my… condition to manipulate you right now. Making you feel sympathetic and more forgiving.’_

Hurriedly, Weiss slid out of the booth to sit next to Neo and hug her tightly. “Neo, you’re not. You’re fine. It’s all going to be fine.” She soothed, pulling Neo’s face into the crook of her neck. “Are you deliberately trying to make us feel sympathy for you?” Neo shook her head against Weiss and nuzzled deeper. “Then you aren’t manipulating us.”

“Neo, we love you and we’re going to help you get through this. But Weiss and I need support as well, that’s what our friends are for. It’s not just the three of us against the world.” Ruby added her own support, returning to her stroking of Neo’s hair.

After about a minute of basking in her girlfriends’ attention, Neo’s scroll popped out from the crush. ‘Okay, let’s tell them after lunch.’

“Have I ever told you you’re one of the bravest people I know?” Weiss murmured to Neo, finally releasing her hold and letting her sit up straight. “I can’t think of many people who’d be brave enough to go after Cinder like that.”

 _‘Brave? More like stupid, since it nearly got me killed.’_ Neo grumbled before grabbing the menu and looking through it.

“I still think you’re very brave.” Ruby mumbled, nudging Neo before grabbing the dessert menu and handing it to Neo. “And I think brave people deserve to eat ice cream for lunch.”

“Ruby…” Weiss sighed, but she didn’t take the menu away from Neo again. She wasn’t going to win this particular fight, nor did she really want to anymore. Shaking her head as Neo happily perused the ice cream selection, Weiss looked for a salad on the lunch menu. At least one of them was going to eat healthily.

* * *

“I don’t know what you were expecting, Neo. You know you’re incredibly picky about ice cream.” Weiss admonished Neo lightly as they made their way back to their cabin.

 _‘Schnee Creamery though, Weiss! Schnee fucking Creamery!’_ Neo complained again as she continued to sulk. _‘They didn’t even have the decency to let us know they use substandard ice cream.’_

“Yes, you’ve mentioned several times that you despise my family’s venture into the world of frozen dairy products.” Rolling her eyes at Neo’s fussiness, Weiss nonetheless gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder as Ruby giggled quietly.

“It’s not that bad, Sweetheart.” She chipped in amongst her laughter. “You’re just an ice cream snob.”

 _‘It’s called having taste, Little Red.’_ Neo responded snippily, holding her head high. _‘And I have excellent taste. You’re both a testament to that.’_

“Perhaps when it comes to Weiss, but let’s not forget you’re both fancy rich Atlesians dating a middle class girl from Patch.” Ruby smirked and Neo huffed in amusement.

“Provenance does not have nearly as much bearing on quality as the upper classes would have you believe.” Weiss informed Ruby with a soft smile. “And you, Liebling, are of the highest quality.”

“Awww, thanks, Princess.” Ruby cooed, cosying up to Weiss and planting a kiss on her cheek as they entered their cabin. Yang was awake now and appeared to be fiddling with her scroll whilst Blake lay on their bunk reading, letting the book drop to look at the three.

“Good lunch?”

“Those of us who had a proper lunch did.” Weiss couldn’t resist getting in that small jab at Neo’s expense, which she responded to by sticking her tongue out at her teasing girlfriend.

 _‘Rude!’_ She pouted, dropping down onto the free bunk and glaring up at Weiss in mock anger.

“Don’t you like the teasing? You certainly seem to enjoy it when you and Ruby are ganging up on me.” Weiss simpered, seating herself beside Neo and pulling her into a side hug, wrapping a wing around her as she did so. Neo huffed quietly and nuzzled into Weiss’ grip, though she did give her a small warning prod as payback.

“Do you want to tell them now?” Ruby asked nervously as she hovered in the middle of the room.

“Tell us what?” Yang looked up from her game and down at Neo, who shuffled uncomfortably on the spot for a moment, then pulled out her scroll and typed something out.

‘Ruby and Weiss think I should tell you about why I’ve been losing my temper so often lately.’ Yang was forced to descend from her bunk so she could read Neo’s messages. ‘According to Ozpin, there are some side effects to inheriting the Maiden powers.’

Yang frowned deeply at the mention of Ozpin. “What sort of side effect? And why didn’t he tell us before?”

‘He didn’t tell us because it doesn’t always happen to this extent, apparently.’ Neo sighed sadly and steeled herself. ‘In addition to the Maiden powers, I also got a bit of Cinder’s soul along with them.’

“So your volatility has been...?” Blake looked slightly nauseated whilst Yang seemed more troubled by the revelation.

‘The influence of Cinder on me.’ Neo confirmed, her free hand absently stroking Weiss’ feathers for comfort.

“That sounds…” Blake cast around for an appropriate word but it was Yang who supplied one.

“Horrifying.” Walking over to the pair huddled together on the bed, Yang sat down beside Neo and pulled her into one of her signature bone-crushing hugs. “I’m sorry you have to go through this. Is there any way of stopping it?”

“Not according to Ozpin.” Weiss told them, continuing to comfort Neo.

“Ozpin said so?” Scepticism dripped from Yang’s voice, making it very clear what she thought of their old headmaster’s words.

“He was trying to help us by telling us what could happen to Neo.” Ruby spoke up which earned a snort of derision from Yang.

“Only after it started happening, if I’m understanding things correctly.” None of them could really refute Yang’s point, but her increasing mistrust of Ozpin wasn’t helpful.

“That doesn’t matter right now. What matters is helping Neo manage the changes.” Weiss looked between Blake and Yang. “We hoped you might be able to help.”

“Of course we will, Neo’s our teammate and friend.” It warmed Weiss’ heart to hear Yang say that, especially after how hostile her relationship with Neo had initially been. “If you’re having difficulty keeping your temper in check, I can go through some of the meditation exercises Dad taught me.”

“I’m not sure how much help I’ll be, but I’ll do what I can.” Blake offered and they received a grateful smile from Neo.

‘Thank you, I don’t deserve this, not really.’

“It’s not a matter of deserving.” Ruby chirped, dropping to her knees in front of Neo to take her hands in her own. “We all want to do this for you. We care for each other, support each other. It’s what we do and not out of obligation. We’re stronger toge-.”

Ruby’s statement of encouragement was interrupted by a loud screeching from outside along with the sound of several explosions.

“That doesn’t sound good.” Yang commented, already on her feet and readying her gauntlet as she peered out of the window at the snowy landscape. Weiss could only sigh deeply. Why was nothing simple for them?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the short delay in posting this, been working on some behind the scenes stuff and working on getting more of a social media presence. But it's back to regular posting for now and it's a bit of a heavy chapter what with Neo's worries. It's good they've all got this strong support network to help them through. Hope that stuff with Qrow's drinking doesn't get too bad though, otherwise I foresee some kind of conflict with Weiss brewing.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and helping me through various bits of writer's block. Lots of thanks too to the lovely [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and keeping my spirits up during a kind of difficult time.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	10. Chapter 10

“Get your weapons, we need to get topside.” Ruby instructed, running to grab Crescent Rose. Jumping to her feet, Weiss seized her cloak and swept it on before collecting Penny Dreadful and Lilie der Rache.

“Looks like you’re gonna get to test out your pistol, Neo.” The pastel girl grinned evilly at Yang’s words, slipping Cacophony into its reversed holster as she followed Ruby out of the cabin at a jog.

Several other passengers were sticking their heads out of their cabins as the five headed to the end of the carriage and stepped out into the cold air. Weiss was right behind Ruby as they ascended the ladder and clambered onto the roof.

All along the length of the train and keeping pace with ease was a large group of leonine Grimm with large feathery wings. Not only that, they seemed to be led by an even larger one with a tail that resembled half of a King Taijitu.

“Manticores!” Yang called out as she, Blake and Neo joined them on the roof. Further down, they saw the two men who’d tried to extort them before the journey readying themselves for battle. The one armed with a large electrified club charged at one of the Manticores that had landed on the train. He didn’t even make it halfway. Weiss saw almost in slow motion another Grimm dive in behind him and she and the others had already started running towards him, but it was too late and he was too far away.

With a blood curdling scream, the man was snatched up in the Grimm’s claws before it swept off into the trees with him, his panicked yells cutting off abruptly before getting whisked off in the wind.

“Ruby, what’s the plan?” Blake asked, shock and fear in their voice as they continued to run towards the bulk of the Grimm. 

“Keep them towards the back of the train, with the cargo, and away from the passengers. I don’t want anyone else dying today.” Their leader instructed, unfolding her scythe and firing off a few shots at some of the pursuing Manticores.

With varying calls of affirmative and one whistle, the team fanned out into a loose circle as the Grimm noticed them as a new threat and swooped in on them.

“Just like on the caravan!” Weiss commented to Neo as she flipped Penny Dreadful into its pistol form to shoot down some of their pursuers. “Hopefully I won’t have to throw you into the air this time.”

Neo grinned cheekily as she drew Cacophony and fired off six rounds in succession, each bullet hitting its mark in a Grimm, before smoothly breaking the gun open and loading a fresh moon clip. Further up the train, Weiss could hear the telltale sounds of Nora’s grenades exploding and getting louder as Team JNR made their way down the train to join up with them.

As they fought off the swarm of Manticores, the larger Grimm landed on one of the rear carriages, sending the remaining train guard running. Weiss couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Hong and their crew hadn’t even been officially licensed hunters and they still did a better job than this guy. Mistral really was scraping the bottom of the barrel if they were placing the safety of its citizens in the hands of the likes of him.

Barging past Weiss and the rest of the team, the cowardly hunter rushed for the front of the train, muttering something about automated defenses. A few moments later, Qrow finally made his appearance on top of the train and, being Qrow, immediately decided to engage the large Grimm that was leading the pack.

Their efforts were thinning the attacking Grimm, but there were still a lot of them, and of course they could spit fireballs, as if giant claws and teeth weren’t bad enough.

As the fight continued to rage, Weiss noticed that Neo was no longer part of the defensive circle, having pursued a Manticore that had landed further up the train.

Noticing this momentary weakness, another Manticore swept in, fire burning at the back of its throat. Weiss started running to Neo before the fireball launched, but she wasn’t the first one there. Instead it was Jaune who slid in front of the attack and batted it away with his shield. Interposing himself between Neo and the Grimm, Jaune held his shield up defensively, occasionally glancing back worriedly at the pastel girl, who continued to fire her pistol at the attacking Grimm.

Reasonably satisfied that Neo was safe, Weiss returned her attention to the rest of the Grimm and flicked Lilie around to Fire Dust. If the Grimm wanted to play with fire, she would oblige them. Aiming up at the flocking Manticores, Weiss sent a pulse of aura down her arm and summoned a red glyph to fire her own salvo of fireballs. Her assault took out a few of the Grimm, and as she was about to hurl a few more, she noticed out of the corner of her eye one of the Manticores rearing back to spit a fireball at Ruby’s unprotected back.

Spinning and darting towards her leader, Weiss clicked her bracer to Ice Dust and dragged it along the roof after her. A wall of ice sprang up in her wake as she swept behind Ruby and shielded her from the incoming fireball.

“Thank me later ~ !” She called back to Ruby as she continued to skate along the roof towards the back and more of the Grimm. Before she could shoot more of them down with Penny Dreadful, however, a large cannon suddenly rose up and shot down the ones she’d been aiming at.

Looking around, she saw all along the train more cannons had risen up and were firing on the Grimm with reasonable accuracy. After only about half a minute of their activation, however, the leading Grimm let out a shrieking roar that was understood by its compatriots, several of whom detached from the main flock to swoop up the length of the train and start attacking the cannons up there.

Weiss nearly paid for her lapse in concentration when a Manticore flew down at her, jaws wide and flickering with fire, as she raised her hand to conjure a glyph. As the spinning emblem began to form, the Manticore was suddenly obliterated and dissolved into ash by a bolt of lightning.

Looking wildly for her saviour, Weiss felt her jaw go slack as she saw Neo stood there proudly, eyes burning with pink fire as she pointed Hush at another Manticore. Using the parasol as a conduit for her powers, she directed another bolt of lightning at the Grimm, annihilating it as a menacing smile grew across her face.

Wide grin firmly in place, Neo stalked along the roof of the train towards the back, where Qrow was still engaging the lead Grimm. As she walked, she flicked her parasol almost casually at the Grimm she passed, and each one was struck down by lightning. It was a far cry from Ozpin’s previous attempt at getting her to harness her powers, and it was both awe inspiring and terrifying.

Neo strutted towards the large Grimm and pointed Hush directly at it. It screeched and roared and. surprisingly, opened its wings and let the wind carry it off the back of the train. As it fell back, so did the Manticores. Had they recognised Neo’s power and been scared away by it?

“Tunnel!” At the call from Oscar, Weiss whipped around. Sure enough, they were hurtling right for a low tunnel.

“Neo!” Weiss yelled for the pastel girl, who was still staring at the large Grimm and turned around at Weiss’ call. The fire burning from Neo’s eye blinked out and the cruel smirk morphed into fear as she ran for the end of the carriage and dropped down into the gap. Weiss followed after at a run, but she was so focused on getting off the roof, she didn’t notice there were still a couple of Grimm flying alongside the train.

Weiss felt the heat of the incoming fireball and tried to jump over it, but it still slammed into the train’s roof and dislodged her footing. With a lurch, she felt herself overbalance and was about to tumble off the train to a death from the impact or the pursuing Grimm, when a hand grabbed her wrist and hauled her back up.

“Thank me later ~ !” Ruby chirped, pulling Weiss into her embrace and launching them both forward in a whirl of red and white rose petals. Together, they shot forwards the last several metres to the end of the carriage and down into the gap between them just as darkness enveloped them.

The petals dissipated and left both Weiss and Ruby panting for a moment on the platform on the outside of the carriage. Having caught their breath, the pair made their way into the carriage and were met with a tight hug from Neo.

“Where are the others?” Weiss asked, looking around the carriage and seeing no one else.

_ ‘They’ll be further up the train. We should regroup with them.’  _ Neo answered once she let go, looking to Ruby for approval. Ruby nodded in agreement and the three of them started up the train. In the next carriage they found Blake and Yang trying to reassure some of the passengers who were cowering in fear of the attack.

“Weiss, thank the gods you’re safe.” Yang pulled the white-haired faunus into a tight hug. “I just made it off the roof when I saw you nearly fall.

“I’m fine, Ruby caught me.” Weiss reassured her friend, shooting Ruby a thankful smile. “We should keep moving, find Jaune and the others.” Together, the five continued to head to the front of the train and found Oscar, Nora and Ren a few carriages along. The three of them were huddled together around Jaune and the other guard.

“Guys!” Ruby called out as her team jogged up to the rest of them. “Are you all alright?”

“We’re fine, but…” Ren stepped aside to let them see. Weiss was only just able to suppress a gasp of horror. The guard’s right arm was twisted, bloody and broken. Jaune seemed to be doing what he could with his semblance, but without someone to properly set the bone…

The was a faint whimper from beside Weiss and she looked over to see Yang’s fists clenched tight, the knuckles on her hand already white. Weiss was about to try to guide Yang away, but Blake got there first, murmuring something soothing to Yang and pulling her aside and out of sight of the injured man.

A sudden slam from the far end of the carriage caught everyone’s attention and they all turned to see Qrow storm into the carriage and make a beeline for the guard. 

“You need to turn those turrets off!” He yelled in the injured man’s face, cornering him against the wall.

“Those things were keeping us alive.”

“Us, maybe, but they’re also drawing the Grimm further up the train and putting the passengers in danger!” Qrow continued to yell as Ren and Nora tried to pull him away from the badly injured man.

“I’m not listening to a drunk guy wearing a skirt! I’m the one in charge here!”

“Well, you’re doing a bang up job of it! And it’s a combat skirt, it has pockets!” Weiss could smell the alcohol on Qrow’s breath as he ranted, and she had to question whether he was in much of a fit state to be in charge. Taking a few steps back to avoid both the shouting and the smell, Weiss noticed that Ruby too had stepped away and was gazing out of the window.

Walking over, Weiss rested a hand on Ruby’s shoulder as she looked out the window as well. She could just make out against the dwindling light of the mouth of the tunnel the Grimm had landed and were still giving chase.

“They’re going to keep coming after us.” Weiss murmured as Ruby shifted to look back at the few passengers in the carriage with them. Weiss could almost feel the fear and worry rolling off them and she wondered what it must be like to the Grimm.

“We have to protect the passengers first and foremost. That’s our job.” Ruby said decisively, walking back to the group with Weiss a few steps behind.

“This is the worst Grimm attack I’ve seen, and I’ve been keeping this train safe for weeks now, an-.” The guard continued to argue with Qrow but stopped as Ruby laid a hand on her uncle’s arm and moved him back.

“Please, shut off the turrets. We know what we’re doing.” She implored, and Weiss could imagine her wide silver eyes gazing pleadingly up at the guard who after a moment grunted out a reply.

“Fine.” Pulling out his scroll, the guard tapped on it and put it away.

“That’s one thing, but what are we going to do about the passengers?” Blake asked, glancing back at the still scared passengers. “Even if we fight off these Grimm, they’re all scared enough that they could end up attracting more.”

“Ren, what about your semblance?” Nora piped, up and they all looked to Ren, who squirmed uncomfortably under all the attention.

“I could try, but I’ve never shielded so many people before.” He shrugged uncertainly, looking between Nora and Jaune for support.

“What if I were to use my semblance to help?” Jaune volunteered tentatively.

“Would that work? Does your semblance work that way?”

“I don’t know, but we’re a little low on options, and if Ren’s willing to let me try…” Jaune trailed off hopefully as Ren hummed in thought.

“We should try.” He agreed after a moment, nodding as Jaune slumped in relief.

“Right, we have a plan. Let’s get ready to get back out there.” Clapping her hands, Ruby started towards the back of the carriage.

“I’m afraid it won’t be that simple, Miss Rose.” Ruby froze mid step and turned with the others to look at Ozpin who stepped forward. Weiss wasn’t sure when he’d assumed control but here he was looking at Ruby gravely as he continued quietly, shooting a wary glance at the guard. “You see, the Grimm aren’t just attracted to the passengers’ fear. They’re also attracted to this.”

Weiss’ heart sank as Ozpin gestured to the relic attached to his belt. Of course, of course there was something else. There always was.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Yang shrieked, eyes flaring red as she pulled away from Blake to glare down at Ozpin. “Why didn’t you tell us that?”

“I-.”

“Not now.” Ruby spoke over Ozpin’s attempt at explaining himself, rubbing at her temples in frustration as she did so.

“But-.”

“Not now, Yang.” Ruby snapped, shooting her sister a sharp look. Yang looked like she wanted to protest further, but Weiss quickly stepped over and laid a hand on her shoulder, shaking her head as Ruby started to pace, anxiety rolling off her in waves.

After a little while she stopped, a conflicted and upset frown twisting her normally happy expression. “We can’t stay on this train.”

“What?”

“With the relic attracting Grimm, we’re putting everyone here in danger. You heard what the guard said, this is the worst Grimm attack on the train, and it’s because of us.” Guilt filled Ruby’s tone, and Weiss felt a small stab of satisfaction that Ozpin looked away in guilt as well.

“So what do we do?”

“We need to get the passengers to the front cars. Ren, you and Jaune will mask their emotions, just like we planned.” Ruby let out a deep and regretful sigh. “We’ll decouple the rear of the train with the relic. That’ll keep the Grimm distracted whilst you get the people and the rest of the train safely to Argus.

“I don’t like it.” Jaune spoke, and Weiss had to agree. She did not like this plan one bit, but Ruby held firm.

“Neither do I, but we don’t have any other options.” Ruby stated plainly, already drawing Crescent Rose for the upcoming fight. “We protect people, that’s our job. We’ll get to Argus some other way.”

Jaune still did not look happy with this plan, but eventually he nodded. “We’ll wait for you there.”

“Good. Let’s go, people!”

* * *

“Ruby, are you sure about this?” Weiss asked as they prepared to climb back out onto the roof. They’d spent the last fifteen minutes evacuating passengers to the front of the train, and Weiss was very thankful the tunnel had been a long one and had granted them a much needed reprieve to deal with the more stubborn ones. Now that they were out of the tunnel and the pursuing Grimm were able to catch up, they had to enact their plan and fast.

“No, I’m not.” The leader confessed, her grip on her scythe tightening for comfort. “But I have to be.” Glancing around, Weiss pressed a quick kiss to Ruby’s cheek before clambering up onto the roof again. Ruby followed shortly after, and together they stood and watched as the others climbed up with them. Jaune, Nora and Ren were all on a carriage further along, and the person to climb up onto the carriage was Blake, who’d been assigned decoupling duties again.

They looked oddly spooked by something, but there was no time to question it as the Grimm assault resumed. Conjuring up a set of glyphs, Weiss launched a volley of icy spears at the Manticores and protected Ruby as she had her eyes glued to her scroll.

Out of the corner of her eye, Weiss could see the other half of the train slowly start to pull away, leaving them behind to face the Grimm.

“Miss Neopolitan, we’re alone up here. It’s safe for you to use your powers!” Ozpin called out to Neo, in between bludgeoning a Manticore that had landed on the roof with him. Neo nodded and closed her eyes to concentrate, and in turn, Weiss shifted her priority to defending her as Ruby gave Nora her instructions and rejoined the fray.

After several long seconds though, Neo opened her eyes again, but there was no pink fire burning from them this time as she shrugged helplessly. Unable to give an explanation with her hands full, Neo returned to firing shots at the airborne Manticores.

Flipping Penny Dreadful into its pistol form, Weiss joined Neo, but after a few of her shots went wide she gave up. “Neo, take this. You’re a better shot than I am.” Weiss instructed her, passing her weapon over to Neo and receiving Hush in return.

Leaving her girlfriend to lay down suppressing fire, Weiss went after some of the Manticores that had landed further down the train and were harassing Ruby. Skating across a set of glyphs to save herself from having to jump the gaps, Weiss proceeded to drive Hush’s blade into the neck of one of the Manticores.

Withdrawing the blade, she pirouetted gracefully, bringing the blade up in an arc to sever the beast’s head. Leaving it to dissolve into ash, Weiss clicked her bracer around to Lightning Dust as Ruby called out to her.

“Petal to the Metal!” Weiss had to roll her eyes at the ridiculous attack name before she channeled her aura down her arm and through the Dust to form the time dilation glyph below Ruby. Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to try out a combat technique for the first time on a fast moving train, but it was impressive to watch nonetheless.

Ruby seemed to almost teleport across the roof, moving almost too fast to see. The trail she left, however, was spelled out in dissolving Grimm remains and spent shells. She was unable to hold it for very long and came to a halt near Yang and Blake, breathing heavily whilst Weiss and Neo followed in the wake of destruction. In fact, Weiss had deliberately put less power into the glyph than she would with herself or any of the others, just in case.

Ruby’s semblance already pushed her body to the limits of human endurance and although time dilation glyphs didn’t technically increase speed, they decided not to push it and risk injury. Ruby’s brief rampage had annihilated pretty much all of the attacking Grimm, save for one. The large Sphinx that Qrow had been keeping occupied.

It was proving difficult for him to deal with, as it kept using its superior mobility and the fact that it could fly to dodge his strikes.

“We need to ground it!” Ruby called to the rest of her team.

“We’re on it!, Yang, go!” Blake was already swinging Gambol by its ribbon as Yang charged towards the Grimm and slid under it just before it came crashing down in an attempt to crush her. Weiss and Neo followed after, swapping their weapons back as Blake’s weapon flew past them and wrapped around the Sphinx’s torso. With a heave from both Blake and Yang, the beast was brought down to the train’s roof with a loud slam as Weiss darted over its front paws.

With a sharp stab down, Weiss thrust Penny Dreadful down through the Grimm’s paw, a move that was mirrored by Neo on the other side as the pastel girl was forced to hold on for dear life.

Immobilised and pinned, the Sphinx let out another screechy roar before raising its head, flames licking up its throat. But it was too late for the Grimm, as both Ruby and Qrow came spinning in, scythes outstretched. The pair’s scythes worked almost like a pair of scissors as they swept in and bisected the Sphinx.

Much like other large Grimm, however, that didn’t put it down immediately. Its dying throes managed to tear its pinned paws out and sent Weiss and Neo staggering. As the torso flailed and fell, its form starting to dissolve to ash, against all probability, the fire in the back of its throat was unleashed.

Weiss watched in horror as it sailed over Ozpin’s head and crashed into the oncoming tracks, destroying them utterly.

“Ah, shit!” Qrow’s resigned swearing carried back to Weiss, but she paid it no mind as she clicked Lilie around to Gravity Dust. Slamming her fist into the roof and concentrating hard, Weiss summoned a glyph to secure each member of the group to the train as they barrelled towards the broken track.

As the train was sent careening off the rails and into the snow, Weiss couldn’t help but swear and wonder how her life had led to her riding on top of yet another crashing train.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fight time! Been a hot minute since we've had one of these and we get Maiden Neo showing off her powers for the first time. Sadly though, things can only go downhill from here.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being so good. Lots of thanks too to the lovely [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and just being the best.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	11. Chapter 11

One might think that having the experience of riding a crashing train into the centre of a major city would prepare you for any future train crash-related incidents.

It does not.

Weiss was at least conscious for the entirety of this crash, but it meant she was witness to the unpleasantness that came with getting tossed around as the train parted ways with the track. Weiss kept her hand in contact with the roof as the train ploughed its way through the snow and she fought to keep her friends anchored.

It was a wild ride down a long slope and off a ridge, the train eventually coming to a halt on the edge of the forest, far below the tracks. Groaning, her head spinning and her bones rattled from the crash, Weiss released the others and slumped down in a heap.

“Weiss! Are you okay?” Ruby’s voice called out and Weiss looked up weakly at her concerned girlfriend.

“I’ll be fine, I just need a moment.” She mumbled, taking Ruby’s proffered hand and allowing herself to be pulled up. “Remind me to never take a train again, because now I’m two for two on them crashing.”

“She must be fine if she’s making jokes.” Yang called out from further back, forced cheer masking what sounded like frustration, and Weiss looked over to see her helping up Neo whilst Blake stood to the side looking around.

“Where’d Qrow and Ozpin go?” They asked, and Weiss glanced up the train where they’d been just before the crash but couldn’t see them.

“Maybe they’re on the ground.” Ruby suggested, walking over to the edge. “We should look through the wreckage, see what we can salvage.

“Bumblebee better be alright.” Yang commented as she hopped off the side and made her way to the rear of the train, where her bike had been stored. Weiss followed Ruby to the edge of the roof and climbed down the ladder, feeling a little too woozy still to just jump.

“Uncle Qrow? Oscar?” Ruby called out as she trudged through the snow, picking up the occasional item to see if it was useful. There appeared to be several cases of Dust bullets that had broken open during the crash, and Weiss was very glad they hadn’t gone off.

As they rounded the front of their section of train, Weiss noticed Qrow and Oscar together, staring gobsmacked at something. Weiss followed their gaze and her jaw dropped too. A tiny old woman with a pair of prosthetic eyes and a skull-headed cane stood in the doorway to the carriage.

“Um, who is this?” She asked the group, completely baffled as to how the woman had got there as her wings flared in agitation. They’d been thorough about evacuating the passengers and Ruby had personally checked all the compartments.

“I am Maria Calavera.” The old woman announced, climbing down from the carriage and walking over to the group, now joined by Blake and Neo, who also looked very confused by the presence of the old woman.

Weiss was about to ask exactly what Maria was doing there but was cut off by a shout from Yang. “Well, Bumblebee’s a bit scratched and dented, but she should still run. Doesn’t do much about us being stranded in the middle of the woods though.” Yang jogged up to the group, dusting off her hands. “What are you all looking at?”

Weiss just gestured wordlessly at Maria Calavera, who gave Yang a cheery wave as the blonde came to a dead stop. “What the fuck?”

“I wouldn’t have put it quite so indelicately, but yes.” Weiss agreed with Yang’s sentiment as her friend’s simmering irritation finally exploded.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me!” She screamed, starting to pace back and forth as she continued to rant. “We’re stranded in the middle of fucking nowhere, we’ve lost three of our party, and to top it all off, we’ve somehow picked up a defenseless old woman!”

“I am not defenseless!” Maria protested, glaring up at Yang. “Just because I’m a little hard of hearing and can’t see without my eyes, which are in dire need of repairs…” Maria tapped at the prosthetics, which whirred in protest, and the woman deflated a little. “Okay, maybe you do have a point.”

_ ‘I like her.’  _ Neo signed, trying to instill some levity in the disheartened group, but Yang was having none of it, and even if she were, she couldn’t understand Neo.

“So we’re fucked.” She surmised, and it was hard to argue with her as Qrow spoke up.

“Hey, calm down, Firecracker. If we lose our tempers, we’ll just be attracting more Grimm.” His attempts at calming the situation fell on deaf ears though.

“Does that even matter? Apparently we’ve been attracting Grimm the entire time!” Blake’s reminder only angered Yang even further and she rounded on Oscar.

“Oh, yeah, I nearly forgot about that.” Stalking forward, she glared down at the farm boy. “What happened to ‘no more lies and half truths’?”

Oscar was momentarily cowed by Yang’s invasion of his personal space but surprisingly he nodded in agreement with her. “You’re right, we’re owed some answers.” He closed his eyes momentarily and then straightened up fully as Ozpin assumed control.

“I did not lie to yo-.” He started but Weiss cut him off.

“A lie of omission is still a lie, and you certainly did that by not telling us everything about the relic.” Weiss cast a quick glance over at Maria, who was watching in fascination, even if she lacked the full context for what was happening.

“Please, now is not the time to start throwing around accusations.” Ozpin tried again, but this time Yang interrupted.

“No, we’re done kicking these things down the road. We want to know why you’re still not telling us everything!” She looked to the others for support, and Weiss, Neo and Blake all nodded, as did Ruby, though she looked rather distressed about what was happening.

“I was afraid that if you knew about the relic attracting Grimm, it would only cause anxiety and exacerbate its effects. I thought it was the best course of action.” Ozpin justified, walked backwards away from Yang who had continued to tower intimidatingly over him.

“You know, I’m getting really tired of you deciding what we need to know and what you think is ‘best’ for us.” Weiss sneered, feeling her own frustrations at the former headmaster’s continued lack of transparency bubbling up and mixing uncomfortably with her own guilt about concealing things, as her wings flared and flapped.

“Is that why you decided to lie about Lionheart to everyone as well? So people wouldn’t be anxious?”

“Yes, Mistral deserves better than the truth, and I believe Leo deserved to be remembered for his lifetime of service to Haven Academy than for his mistakes at the end.” Yang growled angrily at these further attempts at justification.

“Mistakes? Is that what you think they were? Sending dozens of hunters to their deaths was just a mistake?” Weiss agreed with Yang on this, as she had with all the blonde’s previous points. Lionheart had betrayed them all and, in her opinion, had gotten what he deserved.

“I’m not going to argue that what Leo did wasn’t reprehensible, because it was! But does one lapse in judgement negate a lifetime of good?”

“It was a lot more than just one lapse.” Yang pointed out, folding her arms as she continued to stare down Ozpin. “It was a series of calculated actions against us.”

“And have all of you done no wrong? You never met Leo as I knew him, before Salem got to him.” Ozpin started to walk away from the group, but Yang didn’t let up.

“Look, we’re supposed to be working together, we agreed to do this. You can trust us, we’re not going to turn our ba-.”

“Do you really think he was the first?!” Ozpin suddenly rounded on them, his eyes flashing angrily. “Do you really think that he didn’t say the exact same thing?” Just as suddenly he deflated and sighed deeply, rubbing at his temples.

“I’m sorry I concealed things from you all, but you must understand, I do these things for a reason, and they are backed by millenia of experience.”

“So you think we’re going to inevitably betray you?” Blake asked, hurt and guilt written across their face.

“I didn’t mean to imply that. I don’t believe any of you will betray me.” Weiss did not like how Ozpin’s eyes flickered briefly over to Neo as he said that. “What I mean is that I have reasons for what I do, for the secrets I keep and why I…” Ozpin reached down to his belt and froze, looking down in horror. “Where’s the relic?”

Weiss’ heart dropped into the pit of her stomach. They couldn’t have lost the relic, not on top of everything else that had happened.

“It’s here.” Everyone turned to look at Ruby, and relief flooded Weiss at the sight of the relic cradled in her hands. “You must have dropped it in the crash.”

Ozpin breathed a sigh of relief and held out a hand to Ruby. “Please, hand it over.” Ruby didn’t move, however, her feet shuffling uncomfortably in the ankle deep snow.

“Why?”

“The relic has great power, and with it comes a proportional burden. One that is mine to bear.” Ozpin continued to hold out his hand expectantly, but Ruby still didn’t move.

“But I thought you said it couldn’t do anything right now.”

“Surely it doesn’t matter who’s carrying it.” Blake chipped in, their eyes narrowing suspiciously at Ozpin as their ears flattened.

“If anything, it makes more sense for one of use to carry it.” Yang gestured between herself and the rest of Team RYNBW. “No offense to Oscar, but he’s not exactly best placed to protect it.”

“I need you to listen to-.” Ozpin started, stepping towards Ruby, arm still outstretched to take the relic, but all of a sudden he froze in place, his muscles straining but unable to move.

“Don’t listen… trying to stop you.” Weiss was shocked to hear Oscar talkin, his voice strained as though he was fighting something.

“What?” Yang asked, stepping up to help the boy.

“Ozpin… trying to stop you from finding out... what he’s hiding.” Oscar gasped out from between gritted teeth as he fought for control of his own body. It was awful to watch. Ozpin had indicated he could only take control of Oscar with Oscar’s permission. That the boy had to fight with the man he shared his body with…

Ruby backed nervously away from the struggling boy, the relic held close her chest, and Neo moved in beside her protectively. Weiss, Blake and Yang looked to each other, not sure what to do or how to intervene, and all the while Qrow and Maria watched on in silence.

“Oscar?” Ruby asked tentatively as the boy continued to remain frozen in place, trembling and twitching as he fought.

Finally he managed to gasp out. “Jinn. Say her name to summon her.” With those words, he collapsed into the snow which finally spurred Yang into action. The blonde jogged over to help Oscar up, but as she did, he pushed her aside as Ozpin got up and tried to rush Ruby but he was too late.

“Jinn?” The biting wind that swept flurries of snow around them suddenly slowed and became still. But they didn’t fall, and instead hung in midair, suspended in time. Everything else fell silent, except for a drawn out yell from Ozpin.

“Nooooo!” He fell to his knees, arm still raised in its fruitless attempt to lay claim to the relic. The relic which was now beginning to glow as it floated out of Ruby’s hands and grew to its full size.

“What in the world?” Maria croaked in astonishment, reminding Weiss that the old woman had just been tossed into the deep end of a centuries-old conspiracy. The group watched in amazement as a blue fog seeped out of the relic, shrouding it until all that could be seen was a faint glow.

For a moment, it seemed as though nothing was happening. Then something moved in the fog, something large. Just as Weiss’ hand started to drift towards Penny Dreadful, that something exploded out of the fog and hovered in midair above the floating relic.

It took a few moments for Weiss to realise what she was looking at before she averted her eyes hastily, blushing furiously. Stretching luxuriously in mid-air was a large and very naked blue woman adorned in golden jewellery. Glancing at the others, Weiss was surprised that Qrow was the only other person averting their eyes. She was, however, very unsurprised that Neo was openly ogling the floating woman. Weiss saw out of the corner of her eye the woman drifting down to look at them all.

“Wonderful, it’s been a while since I’ve been called upon.” The strange naked woman’s voice had an oddly musical quality to it. “So, what knowledge do you seek?”

Nobody spoke for what felt like ages, they were all too stunned by this turn of events. Eventually, it was Yang who broke the silence. “Ya know, when Ozpin said the relic would answer questions, I was not expecting whatever this is.”

“I am Jinn. I was created by the God of Light to aid Humanity in the pursuit of knowledge.” Jinn explained, drifting around a little as she observed the group. “In order to do that, I was given the ability to answer three questions every hundred years, and luckily for you, I-.”

“That’s enough!” Ozpin seemed to have finally found his voice and he glared up at Jinn, who merely smiled beatifically down at him.

“Hello again, old man. It’s been a while.” She straightened up again, and Weiss averted her eyes once more. “As I was about to say, I am still able to answer two questions this era.”

Weiss thought she should be shocked that Ozpin had lied to them yet again, but she couldn’t muster up the energy. It wasn’t surprising anymore, Ozpin clearly didn’t trust them with anything, and Weiss hated to admit it, but it seemed like Raven had been right about him.

The others looked over at Ozpin, their expressions ranging from disappointment to pure rage, and Ozpin for his part continued to kneel in snow, his head bowed. “Ruby, I beg of you. Don’t do this.” He sounded desperate, pleading, but Weiss was done listening to him. They all were.

Ruby turned back to Jinn and opened her mouth to speak to her, but was interrupted by a call. “Hey!”

The rest of Team RYNBW turned to face Qrow, instinctively forming up defensively around Ruby, and the man raised his hands in surrender.

“Just… Just do what you think is right, Kiddo.” Weiss turned back to look at Ruby and Jinn, the former appearing to have settled on a question.

“Jinn, What is Ozpin hiding from us?”

Weiss thought she caught a glimpse of a momentary smirk from Jinn before everything went white.

Weiss looked around wildly. She was alone in an endless white void.

“Ruby? Neo?” She called out as panic filled her chest. She couldn’t be alone, not again. Weiss spun on the spot and decided to just run, continuing to call out for her girlfriends and teammates.

She didn’t get far before the blankness around her warped, taking on colour and forming into a scene. She was standing on a road in the middle of a wide open plain and at the end of the road was a large castle.

“Once upon a time, there stood a lonely tower.” Jinn’s voice spoke from both everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Weiss’ stomach lurched as the scenery faded into smoke and reformed into what appeared to be a bedroom, only this time, Weiss wasn’t alone.

Sat at a table, gazing longingly into a mirror, was a pretty young woman. Weiss approached her cautiously as Jinn’s voice spoke again.

“And in that tower, lived a lonely girl named Salem.”

* * *

Weiss’ knees hurt. She didn’t know at what point she’d fallen to them in despair as Jinn had shown them those things, those horrible things.

It couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t be. The gods could never be that cruel and merciless. But deep down she felt it, Jinn told the truth, and there was no escaping it. Everything she’d been taught, everything she’d believed, it had all been a lie. There was no plan, no grand design that made all the suffering worth it. The gods hadn’t even created them, they just appeared by chance as a freak of nature.

“Salem can’t be destroyed… You-you all heard it too, right?” Yang’s voice was shaky, and Weiss looked up, blinking back tears as she rounded on Ozpin.

“I-I-.” He tried to stammer out and Weiss was shocked to see him in tears as well.

“There was so much you didn’t tell us! How the fuck did you think that was okay?!” Yang exploded, marching over and screaming in Ozpin’s face. “We are risking our lives for you and you hid all of that from us!”

She was stopped from raging more at Ozpin by Ruby, who gently pushed her sister aside to talk to him. “Professor, what’s your plan to defeat Salem?”

“...I don’t have one.” Weiss wasn’t sure she could feel any lower. There was nothing left, no hope, no anything.

Silence fell over the group, then Qrow started speaking, not even bothering to look at Ozpin. “I trusted you, Oz, trusted you with my life. No one wanted me, but you gave me a place, a chance to do some good.” Weiss had never heard anyone sound so broken as Qrow continued. “I thought maybe fortune was smiling on me for once in my life. But now I see that meeting you, was the worst luck of my miserable life.”

Silence fell over them all again in the wake of Qrow’s words until Ozpin broke it. “Maybe… Maybe you’re right.” He then slumped over, and it was Oscar who sat back up.

“What just happened?” Ruby knelt down in front of Oscar, who was holding his head in pain.

“He’s… He’s gone.”

“What?!” Yang screeched, her eyes flickering dangerously red. “You get that fucking bastard back here, we’re not done with him.”

“No, this is different. I can’t even hear him anymore. It’s like he’s locked himself away where I can’t reach him.” Oscar’s voice grew more and more panicked with each word. “Why? Why did this have to happen to me!?”

“He just left us?” Unlike Yang, Blake sounded very worried as they looked between everyone. “But what are we gonna do now?” Nobody answered. They all looked at each other, fear and uncertainty starting to set in.

“That’s enough!” The group’s growing panic was interrupted by Maria, who stalked to the centre of the group as best she could with a cane. “It’ll be nightfall soon and we need to get a move on. You’re all spewing negativity.”

“Listen, lady.” Yang started, but Maria raised her cane at Yang.

“No, you listen. I know you’re all upset, and rightly so. I’m still currently trying to come to terms with everything. But if we stay here, we die and I’ll be damned if I’ve lived for this long only to die of hypothermia.” None of them had a rebuttal for this, and Maria planted her cane in the snow in satisfaction.

Good. Now, there’s a trail over there. Trails normally lead somewhere.”

“Why don’t we just follow the train tracks?” Blake suggested quietly, looking up at where they’d come from.

“Too hard to climb back up, especially with that ridge.” Ruby answered, squinting up as well. “And I’m pretty sure that won’t do us any good anyway. We’re too far from Argus or Mistral to make it to shelter along the tracks. I think we should take our chances with the path.”

One by one, the others agreed, and started to salvage what they could from the train wreckage. Weiss, however, remained kneeling in the snow until someone came over to her.

“Weiss? You okay?” Blake asked, peering down at Weiss.

“You were right.” She answered, finally getting to her feet. “The gods did forsake us, and they are unimaginably cruel.” And without waiting for an answer, she strode off to help with the salvaging and as she did so, she wondered if anything could be salvaged of her faith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... that went well! Okay, it went about as badly as you could possibly expect and I'm sorry to say that things are on;y going to get worse before they get better. I've been building up to this for a little while now and I finally get to share the pay off.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and supporting me throughout this whole process. Lots of thanks too to the lovely [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being super cute.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	12. Chapter 12

The group trudged in silence through the snow along the path Maria had noticed, the old woman perching atop Bumblebee as Yang pushed it along. Blake had offered to help, but Yang had refused. The blonde was still fuming over Ozpin, and Weiss probably would be too if she didn’t feel so broken by what she’d learned.

The last time she’d felt this shaken in her faith was when her wings first grew back. She’d been far more devout then and had prayed for so long, begging for guidance and the wisdom to know why this was a part of the gods’ plans.

It was then when she’d devoted herself to the God of Darkness over his brother. Her sect may have advocated for worship of both the brother gods, seeing both as equally important to the creation of Humanity and to the universe as a whole, but most followers tended to favour one over the other, following one of the ideals that were gifted by that god.

After her crisis with her wings, Weiss had devoted herself to choice. She chose not to be like those other Faunus, the ones the man she’d thought was her father raged about. In hindsight, her ‘choice’ had been far more damaging to her than she could have imagined. But even after accepting that she was a Faunus, choice was still important to her. The choice to defy Jacques Schnee, to devote herself to her new family.

But now, whenever she thought of her favoured virtue and the god who granted it to her, all she could see was the God of Darkness annihilating humanity without a second thought. It shook her to her core. The God of Darkness may have created the Grimm and was the embodiment of destruction, but to see him destroy his own creation like that...

No, she shouldn’t think about it. Concentrate on the present, the cold and bitter present where they continued to slog through snow and wind in the hopes of finding shelter. They continued to walk in silence. After all, what was there to say?

It was a surprise, then, when Oscar broke the silence. “I… I actually don’t blame Ozpin for keeping all of that secret.”

“What?” Yang’s voice was brittle and accusatory.

“I just…” Oscar shrugged, eyes fixed on the ground. “It’s probably because I’m already becoming part of him or something, but I feel like I understand him more now.”

Yang didn’t answer, merely grunting as she continued to push her bike along. Neo, however, gave him a thoughtful look before pulling out her scroll. A few seconds later, everyone else’s buzzed and Weiss pulled hers out to see what Neo had to say.

‘I think I understand what you mean. I know she’s trying to destroy us all, but I kind of get Salem.’ Weiss blinked in surprise at the message and shot Neo a look, but the pastel girl’s expression was unreadable.

“What? How?” Ruby asked, sounding confused, but not accusative or angry.

‘I understand her wanting to bring back Ozma. If I had the option, I’d do it in a heartbeat.’

“Death is inviolate, Neo. We shouldn’t break its laws.” Blake’s ears twisted uncomfortably, but Neo simply fixed the Faunus with a flat expressionless look.

‘You’re telling me you wouldn’t give anything for even a few more moments with Sienna?’ Blake looked away from Neo sharply. ‘I know if I could, I’d do anything to bring Roman back.’

“I’m sure we all have people we’d love to have with us again.” Ruby spoke quietly, a guilty frown twisting her face, and Weiss wondered who that was for her. Penny? Pyrrha? Summer? “But you heard what the God of Light said, we should let the dead rest.”

‘It’s not fair though.’

“... I know.”

They fell silent once more as they continued their trek, their hearts somehow even heavier than before.

* * *

They must have been walking for at least an hour, if not more. Weiss wasn’t bothering to keep track anymore. The snowstorm was only getting worse and it was impossible to see more than a few metres ahead of them.

Weiss had thought she’d been used to the cold, coming from Atlas, but that had been before her wings had grown in. As it turned out, large limbs that were only covered in feathers lost quite a lot of heat, even those belonging to cold-weather birds, and Weiss had been reduced to wrapping her wings around herself and covering them in her cloak.

The long walk had done nothing to improve the group’s mood and nerves were getting very frayed. “How long are we going to keep this up?” Yang grumbled from the rear of the group, having slowly started to lag behind from the added effort of pushing her bike. “Whatever happened to ‘trails lead somewhere’?”

“Do you really think you’re helping by saying that?” Maria chided from her perch on the bike.

“Hey, I’m the one hauling you through this snow, you don’t get to complain about what I say.” Yang snapped back irritably.

“Yang’s got a point.” Blake spoke quietly and Weiss had to strain to hear them over the sound of the wind. “We might have to accept that we aren’t going to make it to shelter.”

Weiss hated to admit it, but Blake was right, and she cursed herself for deciding to leave behind her and Neo’s camping gear at the bandit camp all those months ago.

“Let’s keep going until it gets dark. If we haven’t found anything by then, we’ll hunker down as best as we can.” Ruby spoke decisively, or at least as decisively as she could. There was a murmur of weary agreement from the rest of the group as they continued on.

The wind howled louder and louder, thick flurries of snow swirling around them and making any conversation nearly impossible, not that any of them wanted to talk. Left alone with her thoughts, Weiss’ mind inevitably drifted back to what Jinn had shown them.

It was inescapable. Everything she’d believed had been so wrong. The gods didn’t care, they never had, and certainly not about her and her kind.

She was saved from any further dark thoughts, however, by Ruby halting suddenly at the head of the group. “Does anyone else hear that?”

Weiss strained her ears, but couldn’t discern anything over the howling of the wind. Blake, on the other hand, nodded hesitantly, their ears angling to the side of where the path led. “It sounds like squeaking? Metal squeaking.”

“I think so.” Ruby confirmed, starting off again towards the source of the sound with the others in tow. They walked for a couple of minutes before a wrought iron gate emerged out of the snowstorm, swinging back and forth in the wind. On the arch above the gate was a sign denoting it to be ‘Brunswick Farm’.

“Well, it’s shelter.” Blake squinted through the snow in an attempt to see what lay beyond. “And we don’t have a lot of choice.”

“Agreed. I can’t see any signs of life though.” Weiss looked too. If there was a farm, she couldn’t see any lights on or anything.

“Everyone keep an eye out.” Ruby instructed, pushing open the gate and leading the way into the farm, Qrow bringing up the rear and closing the gate properly behind them so it stopped squeaking and clanging.

They didn’t have to walk very far before a motley collection of farm buildings loomed out of the gathering darkness. A well sat at the centre of the group of buildings, with a barn and some sheds off to one side and a few small houses arrayed opposite it. In between these two groups of buildings and directly opposite the approaching group stood what could only be the main farmhouse.

As they approached, there were still no signs of life, which was beginning to unnerve Weiss, and not just her. “All the uninhabited settlements we passed through on the way to Mistral were either destroyed or unfinished, but this place looks untouched.” Ruby commented to Qrow as they stepped up onto the porch.

“Maybe they all left in a hurry?” Weiss tried to muster up some kind of optimism, but it fell flat, and she fell silent as Qrow tried the door. When it didn’t open, he merely stepped back and kicked it in without a word.

The others followed him inside warily, weapons drawn. There didn’t appear to be anything wrong with the place, but looks could be deceiving. Maria Calavera, however, seemed to find their caution excessive, as she pushed her way into the house.

“Someone close the door, you’re letting the cold in!” She demanded as she stomped into the hall and started looking around. Shrugging, Blake acquiesced and closed the door behind them and grabbed a nearby table to hold it shut.

“I saw a chimney from outside, there should be a fireplace somewhere, that’ll help.” They volunteered once they’d finished with their makeshift barricade.

“Right. Weiss, you and Yang check out upstairs and see if you can find something that’ll help keep up warm.” Weiss nodded in acceptance of Ruby’s orders and followed Yang up the stairs. About halfway up, she thought she smelled something slightly sweet yet rotten. Perhaps the previous inhabitants had left food behind and it had started to rot since then.

Yang kept her fists at the ready as she crested the top of the stairs and Weiss similarly held Penny Dreadful en garde. There were four doors they could see leading off the landing before it turned a corner out of sight.

“You take the right, I take the left?” Weiss nodded in agreement with Yang’s suggestion, walking over to the nearest door and opening it cautiously. It appeared to be a bathroom. Everything inside was covered in a thick layer of dust and Weiss was fairly certain, since there was a well outside, that it wasn’t properly plumbed in yet.

With nothing useful to be found in there, Weiss closed the door and made her way to the next one. The smell was even stronger here and Weiss was certain it was coming from this room. Steeling herself for whatever awful rotting food and scavengers she’d find, Weiss opened the door, took one look inside and nearly vomited.

“Oh, gods.” She shrieked, staggering away, and was unable to keep her lunch down.

“Weiss, what’s wrong?” Yang was beside her as she was doubled over, still heaving. Wordlessly she pointed to the room and Yang took a quick look before retreating, retching as well. There was a pounding from the stairs and Ruby came flying up quickly followed by the others.

“What happened? We heard Weiss shout.” Ruby asked Yang as she crouched down beside Weiss and rubbed at her back as she shuddered.

“In the bed.” Yang croaked out, covering her face with her hand. Qrow went in, keeping his own mouth covered which helped him not react like Weiss and Yang had. Panting for breath, Weiss finally straightened up and carefully peeked round the door, careful not to breathe in.

It wasn’t that Weiss was afraid of death per se, nor did dead bodies revolt her, having made a couple herself. But the sight of the two decomposing bodies resting almost peacefully in the bed combined with the stench would turn anyone’s stomach.

“Well, they’ve been here a while.” Qrow commented glibly, shutting the door on the rotting corpses. “We should head back downstairs.”

Nodding weakly, Weiss followed the man downstairs, leaning heavily on Ruby for support. Maria peered out of a room curiously as they descended the stairs.

“What was that racket about?” She asked Qrow as he reached the bottom of the stairs and headed for the front door.

“Mini Ice Queen here found a couple of bodies, old ones, just lying in bed. I’m gonna go check the other houses. Stay here, all of you.” Moving the table aside, Qrow vanished outside, pulling the door shut behind him. The others made their way into the room Maria had emerged from. It appeared to be a study of sorts. Books lined the walls and a large ornate fireplace sat in the centre of the opposite wall.

“Sit down, Weiss, we’ll get a fire going.” Ruby instructed, gently pushing Weiss to sit on the floor in front of the empty grate whilst she and Blake grabbed some wood from a basket beside the fireplace. Yang. meanwhile. collapsed onto a nearby sofa, still looking a little queasy from their discovery upstairs, and Neo curled in beside Weiss to take over Ruby’s comforting duties.

“Maybe they were just ill and they couldn’t be moved when the occupants left?” Oscar suggested with forced cheer but Yang shook her head.

“And they were just left to die and rot?” Oscar closed his mouth and retreated to a corner as Blake and Ruby managed to get the fire lit and Weiss shuffled closer to restore some warmth to her chilled bones.

Weiss dreaded to think what had caused those people upstairs to perish, but whatever it was, Weiss did not want to stay in this house any longer. It seemed like nothing was going right for them. This was not how things were supposed to be. Her family was reunited, but they’d just encountered setback after setback. The issues with Neo’s new powers, Blake and Yang dancing around each other, the train crash, the continued lies from Ozpin, Jinn’s revelations, and now this creepy farm.

Weiss shuddered involuntarily as she was reminded yet again of how misguided her beliefs had been. Where was she supposed to go from here? If there was no plan, no reason for all her suffering, then what was the point? She barely noticed as Ruby sat down on her other side and snuggled into her side.

As she gazed into the fire, watching it dance there was a slam from the front door and she heard Qrow calling out. “They’re all like that.”

“What?” Ruby asked in concern, rising to her feet.

“Bodies in every bed, in all the other homes. It’s like they all went to sleep and didn’t wake up.” A chill ran down Weiss’ spine in spite of the warm fire and she looked around the group.

“We can’t stay here, something is seriously wrong.” 

“We’ve got no other choice. Things have gotten worse out there, and we’d all freeze to death before we got very far.” Qrow gravelled out, brushing snow off his shoulders and holding his bare legs close to the fire to warm them up.

“If we’re stuck here, we might as well get comfy.” Maria commented cheerfully, hopping up from her chair and starting to peruse the books lining the wall. Yang just snorted in derision.

“Yeah, let’s all relax in the death house.”

“Then we should do something, keep looking for stuff we can salvage. I don’t think the people here are going to mind if we take some things.” Ruby suggested, frowning a little at the thought of the former occupants.

“Maybe there’s a car or some kind of transport we can use.” Oscar suggested, shrugging, and Qrow nodded.

“I’ll do another sweep of the grounds. Nobody goes anywhere alone.” He warned, having finished warming himself by the fire before heading back to the door.

“Yang and I can look through some of the other buildings for a vehicle.” Blake volunteered their services and Yang rolled her eyes.

“Fine, let’s go.” Yang got up and stalked off to the door, not waiting for Blake to follow her. Ruby’s optimistic smile twisted into a frown as she watched the partners leave the room before turning to her girlfriends.

“Food always cheers me up, just saying.” Weiss sighed, but got up as did Neo.

“Alright, let’s go find some food. I need to eat something after… that.” The three left Oscar and Maria in the study and continued to explore the ground floor of the house. Ruby led the way deeper, using her scroll to light the way as Weiss and Neo followed her, weapons at the ready.

They soon found themselves in a large unlit room and as Ruby cast her scroll’s light around, it illuminated several shelves full of bottles that Weiss had a strong suspicion were filled with alcohol. She also took note of some candles on the wall, and with a quick flick of her wrist, she sent a few fireballs floating across the room to light the candles.

With the room properly lit, Weiss could see her suspicions were correct, and the bottles lining the walls were indeed bottles of alcohol, something Ruby noticed as well.

“Maybe we shouldn’t tell Uncle Qrow about this room.” Weiss nodded in agreement. The man had drained his hip flask within a few minutes of them leaving the crash site, and had bemoaned the lack of it for several more before falling into a sullen silence.

“We should keep going, can’t get to Atlas on an empty stomach.” Ruby chirped, trying to sound cheerful. As she was about to head towards another door in the far wall, however, she was halted by Neo grasping her sleeve.

_ ‘Why are we still going to Atlas?’  _ Neo asked once she had both of her girlfriends’ attention, not meeting their eyes as she signed.

“Why would we not?” Ruby cocked her head in confusion.

_ ‘I mean… Jinn said that Salem can’t be killed, right? If we can’t kill her, then what’s the point of continuing?’ _

“You think we should just give up?” Weiss asked hesitantly as Neo continued to avoid their gaze. She’d be lying if the thought hadn’t crossed her mind a couple of times during the journey, but she’d never expected Neo to be the first to voice it.

“Neo, you can’t be serious…” Ruby’s voice was sad and soft and she reached out for her girlfriend, but she pulled back from the brunette and signed again.

_ ‘I’ve been thinking. I thought I lost everything when Roman died, all I had left was my revenge. But you both gave me something new, something else to live for.’  _ Neo finally looked up at them, tears pooling her eyes as they seemed to glow and glimmer in the candlelight.  _ ‘If we keep going with this, I could lose you both, and I don’t know what I’d do if that happened.’ _

Neo was actually making quite a good point, the thought of losing Ruby or Neo or any of her friends haunted Weiss. It was possibly her greatest fear, now more than ever. Glancing over at Ruby, Weiss was surprised to see her looking conflicted as well.

“Neo, we chose this. We need to see it through.” Neo didn’t flinch away this time when Ruby reached out to take her hand. “The idea of losing you or Weiss scares me too. We’ve already lost too many people, too many friends. But can’t let our fears control us. We have each other, and if we don’t do this, then who will?”

Neo didn’t answer at first, her gaze dropping to look at the hand Ruby was holding. Then she pulled it away to respond.

_ ‘You’re right, I’m just tired and scared, and Weiss is right about there being something seriously wrong with this place.’  _ Neo shook her head as though clearing it of something and marched over to the door, though Weiss thought she caught a glimpse of an uneasy frown as Neo passed her.

Deciding it was probably a trick of the light, Weiss followed her girlfriend into the next room, where they were confronted with more shelves of alcohol.

“They really liked their drink here.” She commented dryly, examining some of the bottles on one of the shelves before catching notice of some doors set into the floor and chained up. “A wine cellar too? Wasn’t the bar enough?”

Shaking her head, Weiss turned to continue her inspection of the room when Ruby let out a squeal of excitement. “Food!” Sure enough, there were a couple of shelves tucked away towards the back filled with tins, which Ruby was eagerly inspecting.

“Tinned food? Great…” Weiss grumbled, walking over with Neo to help Ruby inspect what they’d found.

“Hey, you add enough salt and MSG to anything and it’ll taste great!” She chirped, grabbing a few tins and starting to load Neo and Weiss up. “We ate quite a bit of this stuff whilst we were on the road to Mistral.”

Weiss didn’t want to admit it, but she and Neo had also sampled the delights of tinned beans and other delicacies during their short journey in their stolen ice cream truck. However, she’d grown rather accustomed to eating well on Ren’s cooking since arriving at Mistral. It was no wonder Nora had put on weight during their stay, with a cook such as Ren at her beck and call.

“Well, I suppose it’s better than nothing.” Weiss admitted, accepting a few more tins from Ruby.

“Exactly! We’ve got the makings of a feast here.” Ruby grabbed several tins of her own and led the way back out of the room, humming a happy tune. She had said food cheered her up.

Weiss and Neo followed at a slightly slower pace but all three were witness to Yang storming in from the cold and slamming the door behind her.

“Yang?” The blonde paused at her sister’s call and turned to face the small contingent. “What’s wrong?”

“I just can’t deal with Blake right now.” She growled, eyes flickering between lilac and red. “Why is it so difficult for them to understand?”

“Have you tried understanding them?” Weiss asked rather snippily. She was growing weary of this rift between Blake and Yang, which didn’t seem to have healed at all since Weiss had finally gotten them talking again. “They had reasons for doing what they did.”

“Maybe you should try understanding me better, Weiss. Having reasons doesn’t make it hurt any less.” Yang shot back, glaring angrily at Weiss. “They still abandoned me.”

“Is that all you’re upset about, Yang? They’re back now, isn’t that enough?” Weiss’ tone grew flippant. Surely Yang couldn’t still be hung up on that?

“No, it’s not.” Yang’s eyes were now fully red as they bored into Weiss. “And it’s not just Blake who abandoned me. You and Ruby did too.”

It felt as though a spear of ice had lodged itself into Weiss’ heart with Yang’s words. Had Yang really felt that way? And for how long? Yang must have seen the anguish on Weiss’ face as her eyes slipped back to lilac and her angry expression twisted into guilty remorse.

“I shouldn’t have said that. I’ll be upstairs if you need me.”

“Yang, wait!” Ruby called for her sister, but was too late. Yang vanished up the stairs and was out of sight when Blake came barrelling in.

“Yang? Yang?” They called out, looking around wildly. “Did you see Yang?”

“We did, but I don’t think she wants to talk to any of us right now…” Ruby mumbled, her cheerful mood at finding the food having evaporated. Blake wilted where they stood and nodded in grim acceptance.

“I shouldn’t have come with you.” They mumbled, starting for the study they’d left Maria and Oscar in. “I knew Yang and I could never reconcile. I’m just upsetting the team dynamic by being here. If I’d stayed in Mistral, I could at least be useful to them. I could be hunting down Adam right now. Instead I’m stuck here, weighing you all down.”

“No, Blake, we want you here.” Ruby tried, but Blake shook their head and silently left the hallway, and Weiss saw her settle into one of the corners of the study.

“A-Are we falling apart?” Ruby asked quietly of her girlfriends, sounding like she was just about holding back tears. “I’m trying to be a good leader, I really am…”

“You’re doing a great job.” Weiss reassured her girlfriend, but the words rang hollow as she guided Ruby into the study so they could prepare dinner.

* * *

Weiss wasn’t sure what time it was, only that it was late. Yang had come back downstairs to eat, but it had been done in silence. The entire team remained silent for the rest of the evening and Qrow had volunteered to take watch, leaving the five teens to bunk down together.

But Weiss couldn’t sleep. The events of the day continued to replay in her mind, biting into it like thorns. She wasn’t sure what possessed her to slip out of Ruby’s loose grip and make her way out of the study. She slipped past the sleeping Qrow, an empty bottle clutched in his hand. Maybe he’d had the right idea all along.

Quietly, Weiss slipped down the corridor that led to the rooms she, Ruby and Neo had explored earlier. Illuminated by scroll light, Weiss looked at the arrayed bottles that taunted her. Her thoughts were sharp and painful and dug into her mind as she reached out and took a bottle at random.

Perhaps Mother had had the right idea all this time. Slowly, she cracked open the bottle and let the smell of alcohol invade her nostrils. Hesitantly, she raised the bottle to her lips.

Just one drink. Just to loosen her up a little. Just to take the edge off of everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure there's much I can say after that ending. They're all suffering and taking it all hard, Weiss in particular. Not sure how they're going to go back to how they were before all this and maybe they shouldn't. After all, if they go back to how they were before, they'll just keep making the same mistakes. 
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and giving lots of feedback. Lots of thanks too to the lovely [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being the cutest.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	13. Chapter 13

“Weiss? Weiss?” Weiss’ head was pounding as she was brought back to consciousness by a worried voice, as well as an insistent shaking. Blinking her eyes open, Weiss raised her head from her arms to look around blearily.

“What? Where am I?” She mumbled, her eyes eventually focusing on the person who pulled her from her slumber.

“Weiss, you’re in the storeroom. D-Do you not remember how you got here?” Weiss was finally able to identify the voice as Ruby’s. Pushing herself upright, Weiss’s arm nudged against something that rolled across the table she’d been slumped over. Momentarily distracted from her girlfriend, Weiss blinked at the object she’d bumped into, and after a moment, she realised what it was.

Even worse, it wasn’t the only one. Weiss counted at least four other empty bottles surrounding her as she stumbled back off her stool, horrified. Her head throbbed painfully as the memories of last night came back in flashes and hazy recollections.

Sneaking past an already drunk and passed out Qrow. Taking one of the bottles at random. Having just one drink to help numb it all. One drink becoming two, two becoming three, until eventually the whole bottle was gone and she was already opening another.

Weiss’ knees buckled, but she was caught by Ruby, who held her up as tears leaked from her eyes. “Why did I do that?” She mumbled, staring in dismay and regret at the small pile of bottles.

“Weiss, it’s okay, you’re okay.” Ruby tried to reassure her, but Weiss shook her head, regretting the vigorous motion immediately as it made her head spin.

“No, it’s not okay. Not at all.” She mumbled, looking away from the evidence of her failure. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t fall into the same self-destructive behaviour as her mother. Yet here she was, hungover and filled with shame.

“Neo, can you get some water or something?” Weiss looked up to see Neo hovering to the side, eyes dull and an unhappy frown twisting her features. She didn’t make any move to get Weiss her water, however, instead raising her hands to sign.

Weiss’ head was still fuzzy from sleep and the alcohol, so she couldn’t quite catch what Neo was saying. Ruby’s faculties were unimpaired and she answered Neo sharply.

“Now’s not the time for that, Neo. We need to make sure Weiss is okay, then we can talk about where we’re going next.” Neo still didn’t move, instead setting her jaw and signing more emphatically. This time Weiss was able to pick out a few words and the phrase ‘fuck Atlas’, but she couldn’t piece the whole sentence together.

“Neo, please, I’m tired as well, but Weiss needs our help.” Rolling her eyes, Neo trotted out of the room whilst Ruby helped Weiss to the door after her.

“I don’t deserve help.” Weiss mumbled as Ruby half-dragged her back through the house. “I was weak.”

“Don’t be silly, Weiss, you’re not thinking clearly.” Ruby stated firmly, pulling Weiss into the study and sitting her on the sofa. Thinking was very hard, Weiss was just so tired. Drinking yourself into a stupor must not be good for getting a good night’s rest. No wonder Qrow looked so exhausted all the time.

Blinking, Weiss looked around the room only just noticing nobody else was in there with them. “Where are the others?”

“Blake and Yang found a trailer last night, Oscar’s helping them pull it round to the front to see if we can attach it to Bumblebee. Uncle Qrow is… resting, and Miss Calavera’s keeping an eye on him.” Ruby explained, sitting down on the sofa beside Weiss and rubbing her back between her wings.

“I-.” Weiss started but Ruby cut her off.

“You don’t need to explain anything, Weiss. I’m here for you, we all are. But if you want to talk, we’ll listen.” Weiss briefly considered telling Ruby everything, her wavering faith in the face of undeniable evidence, the futility of their quest, her failure to remain strong and succumbing to temptation.

It was all too much, too much effort to make Ruby understand, too much to burden her with. She was just so tired. She barely registered Neo coming in with a glass of water, which Ruby took gratefully and pressed into Weiss’ hands.

“Drink, Weiss. Alcohol dehydrates you. You’ll feel better if you have a drink.” Nodding, Weiss raised the glass to her mouth, but as she did so, vividly recalled drinking from one of the bottles of wine. The memory was enough to send her reeling back. She thrust the glass blindly at Ruby before curling up on herself, shaking.

She saw Neo start signing to Ruby and felt the brunette shift uncomfortably against her. “Neo, please, I’m not trying to ignore you or your concerns, but using Weiss to emotionally manipulate me isn’t okay.”

Weiss blinked in confusion. What had Neo tried to tell Ruby? Weiss didn’t get a chance to ask, however, as Neo huffed and stalked out of the room. Sighing quietly, Ruby tried to pass the glass back to Weiss, but the white-haired Faunus didn’t take it.

“We’re all just stressed out after yesterday, we’ll be fine once we get away. Then we can rest.” Rest sounded good, very good. She could just close her eyes and lie down. Maybe Ruby and Neo would join her, if they could forgive her for her failure.

Ruby tried again to give Weiss the glass and this time she took it. Fighting back the memories, she took several large gulps of cold water and in the process ended up draining the vessel. Ruby had been right about her feeling better after drinking the water. It wasn’t much better, admittedly, but the cold did help cut through the hangover.

“Thank you.” She mumbled shamefacedly, handing the flash back to Ruby.

“Anytime, Princess.” Ruby ran a hand over Weiss’ wings, straightening a few of her feathers. “We should probably head outside with the others.” A chill ran down Weiss’ spine at the thought of seeing the others and the disappointment on their faces, why couldn’t she just rest? She was so tired.

Maybe another drink would help dull this throbbing ache in her head. Weiss blinked in shock for a moment. No, she absolutely should not drink. Never again. This resolve not to imbibe did little to assuage her fears about the others and their thoughts on her weakness.

“Do… Do they know about what happened last night?” Weiss asked nervously and breathed a small sigh of relief when Ruby shook her head.

“They don’t, and they won’t unless you want them to.” Smiling wanly at Ruby, Weiss nodded gratefully.

“I… I don’t want them to know. They’d think less of me.”

“They wouldn’t.” Ruby insisted but Weiss shook her head.

“Gods, I’m such a hypocrite. Especially with everything I’ve said to Qrow.” The weight of exhaustion that had briefly abated came back in full force. After her repeated jabs at him for his drinking habits and knowing how the man was, he would never let her live it down.

“Weiss, it’s okay.”

“You keep saying that, Ruby, but it’s not!” Weiss got to her feet and stalked over to the door. “It will never be okay. I’ve wasted my life believing in some great plan, that all my suffering meant something. Only now I know it’s just a cosmic accident. The Faunus weren’t made by the gods, their gifts weren’t meant for us.”

Weiss paused before she left the room and looked back at Ruby, who was still sitting on the sofa, watching her sorrowfully. “I’m sorry.” With those words, Weiss left the room and stepped out into the bitter cold.

Blake and Yang had pulled a flatbed trailer around in front of the house, and the former was trying to work out how to attach it to Bumblebee with Oscar’s help. Qrow stood off to the side looking hungover and miserable, whilst Maria sat nearby, reading a book.

Weiss looked around, wondering where Yang was, and was surprised to see her talking to Neo, the pastel girl typing out messages for Yang to read and the blonde talking in hushed tones. Seeing Yang reminded Weiss of what she’d said last night, that she’d been abandoned by Weiss and Ruby as well as Blake. But she hadn’t abandoned Yang, had she? 

All of them looked awful. Heavy bags under their dull eyes. and they all moved lethargically. They all seemed to be as tired as Weiss was. The storm had at least abated and for a brief moment. Weiss considered thanking the gods for small mercies, before remembering they didn’t deserve her thanks.

“Weiss, we need you for something.” Blake called, and Weiss slowly trudged over to them. They seemed to have rigged something onto Bumblebee, and Weiss was mildly surprised Yang had allowed anyone to touch her beloved bike.

“What?”

“We need you to use some Fire Dust to weld some pieces together so we can attach the trailer.” Oscar explained before yawning widely, setting off a chain reaction to ripple through the group.

Nodding dazedly, Weiss switched the chamber of Lilie der Rache around to Fire Dust as Blake positioned the metal and stepped back.

It took a tremendous amount of effort for Weiss to channel her aura down her arm. With a small grunt, she was able to form a small glyph and start heating the metal. After about a minute, the metal began to glow red and Weiss ceased her efforts.

Stepping back, Weiss heard the creak of someone stepping outside and glanced over her shoulder to confirm it was Ruby. “Everything alright out here?”

“Just gotta hitch the trailer.” Oscar groaned, getting to his feet and gestured for Qrow to help him. Together, they wheeled the trailer up behind Bumblebee and hitched it. Hopefully, Weiss’ impromptu welding job would hold.

“Good, that’s done. Now we can get out of this place.” Qrow grumbled, planting a foot on the trailer. There was a brief moment where it seemed as though things might be looking up, and of course, that was when it went wrong.

With a loud bang, one of the tyres on the trailer popped and deflated. It took a lot of willpower for Weiss not to collapse into the snow. Another set back, another obstacle. She was just so tired.

“You people are beacons for bad luck, aren’t you?” Maria commented, looking up from her book at the sudden noise.

“Nope, just me.” Qrow sighed deeply, resting his head in his hands and sinking to the ground.

“I’m starting to think the universe doesn’t want us to get to Atlas.” Yang grumbled, having pulled herself away from her conversation with Neo to join the rest of them.

“How can it? The gods have abandoned us, there’s nothing.” Weiss muttered, gazing dully at the flat tyre.

“It’s just a puncture, girls. There’s probably a spare somewhere.” Ruby’s voice was strained with forced cheer as she looked between the group.

“It’s not just that, it’s everything. The storm, the crash, all the lies and the Grimm. I’m just so tired, Sis.”

“Me too. We have to keep fighting and fighting just to barely get by.” Blake added from their seat on the porch.

“This is what we signed up for. We knew it wouldn’t be easy.” Ruby tried, but Oscar spoke up next, sounding utterly defeated.

“We…  _ You  _ signed up to save the world. Not delay the inevitable.”

“Ruby, Neo and I were talking… Why are we still going to Atlas?” Yang approached her sister.

“Yang, we  _ have  _ to.”

“Why though?” Yang asked, and Neo nodded lethargically behind her. “Ozpin sealed the relics in vaults under the academies. But how long would it take Salem to find it if it were lost in the wilderness?”

“Yang…” Ruby sounded conflicted, but Weiss started to nod in agreement. Yang was right, the schools might have afforded some protection, but they were also a massive flag telling Salem exactly where the relics were hidden.

_ ‘They’d find it eventually, but if we just buried it, or threw it down a well, it could take them years to find it. It might not even happen in our lifetime. We could be free from it now. We could be with each other, start a family.’  _ Blake had gotten up and joined Yang and Neo’s side, facing Ruby, and Weiss slowly drifted over as well.

Neo was right. She was just so tired of fighting all the time, risking her life as well as the lives of the women she loved. Hesitantly, Ruby removed the relic from her belt and looked at it. Her arms trembled under the weight of it as she looked over her shoulder at the well in the middle of the courtyard.

Nobody spoke, but everyone’s eyes were fixed on Ruby as she turned and made her way over to the well. Her shaking hands held the relic out over the dark pit as she mumbled out. “I am… really… tired.”

There was a moment where time seemed to freeze. Then it was over. The relic tumbled out of Ruby’s grip and down into the well. Ruby, however, shrieked and leaned forward to try and catch the falling lamp.

“No! No no no! I didn’t mean to!” She moaned, pulling back from the edge of the well as Weiss approached with Neo.

“Ruby, it’s okay. It’s over now.” She reached out to place a hand on Ruby’s shoulder, but she shrugged it off and whirled to face her team.

“No! There’s something down there, it looked at me!”

“You just said you were tired.” Yang pointed out with a sigh, reaching out for Ruby as well. “It was probably nothing. We should go now, maybe after a quick rest...”

“What is wrong with you?!” Ruby swatted Yang’s hand away and glared at them all. “We can’t just leave, we have to go down there and get the relic back! Oh, what the fuck was I thinking?”

“All we gotta do is fix the trailer. Hey, Farm Boy, have a look around for a spare.” Qrow called out to Oscar, who nodded slowly and sloped off.

“We are not leaving without that lamp!” Ruby insisted, continuing to glare at them all, furious determination in her eyes. Weiss sighed deeply. She was just so tired, but if Ruby was determined, then she had to follow.

“I guess I’m going down with you.” She groaned, not looking forward to jumping into a dark well.

“I suppose we all will.”Yang sighed as Qrow let out a loud noise of frustration.

“Fine, get the stupid fucking lamp. I’m going to go get me another drink.” With that, he stomped up the steps and vanished into the house.

Ruby went first, hoisting herself over the lip of the well and vanishing down into the darkness. Weiss followed next, landing with a splash next to Ruby, who already had her scroll out and was using it to illuminate the area. The others splashed down shortly after, and they scanned the area to no avail.

“Maybe the current carried it off?” Yang suggested, pointing down the long tunnel. Ruby led the way, splashing through the water and looking around for any sign of the relic. As they went, Weiss noticed several side tunnels leading off into darkness, and she wondered why they were there. She thought a well just needed to go straight down.

“Where is it?” Ruby fretted as they continued to follow the current deeper underground.

“Turn off your lights, then we can see it glowing.” Blake suggested, her voice incredibly lethargic as she gestured aimlessly at Ruby’s scroll. Reluctantly, Ruby switched off her scroll’s light and Yang did the same. Unburdened by her scroll, Ruby drew Crescent Rose and was probably squinting and struggling in the dark. Weiss and Blake were able to see fine, however, and Weiss noticed a very faint glow a little further down.

“There.” She pointed, recognising the bluish glow as they got a little closer. With a muted cheer, Ruby rushed forward and Weiss watched with tired eyes as she vanished around the corner.

“Girls, I-!” Ruby’s excited shout was interrupted by a panicked and terrified scream.

“Ruby?!” The sound cut through Weiss’ befuddled and torpid state as Yang called out for her sister. There was a loud splashing as Ruby came barrelling out of the side tunnel and they rushed to meet her. “What is it?”

Ruby didn’t have to answer, the answer came trudging out of the tunnel behind Ruby. Long and lanky arms ending in claws preceded the skeletal figures. Some were so tall they had to hunch over in the low tunnel, others were barely taller than Neo, but still they stalked forward, their glowing red eyes fixed on the five of them as they groaned and moaned, Weiss had never heard Grimm make sounds like that before.

“What the fuck?!” Yang screamed, raising her fists as the rest of them fumbled for their weapons. Ruby was the first to ready her weapon and fired a few rounds at the approaching Grimm. They were tougher than they looked, but the shots felled a couple of them.

Then one of the Grimm paused, seeing its kin destroyed and it let out an ear-splitting wail. It echoed and reverberated throughout the tunnel. It was agony, pure misery and sadness all melded into one horrifying sound.

Weiss’ sword arm dropped. She was so tired. She struggled to raise it, but try as she might, she just couldn’t.

“Run! For fuck’s sake, run!” The shout once again broke Weiss out of her stupor, and she looked back to see Maria standing in the ankle deep water, a look of sheer panic on her face.

“Go! Go!” Ruby fired a couple more shots at their pursuers before turning and running with the rest of them. Neo and Blake fired wildly behind them and Weiss heard the dying shrieks of some of their pursuers.

Glancing back, however, their numbers did not seem to have thinned in the slightest and the slow inexorable tide of Grimm continued to follow. In her panic, Weiss remembered one of Port’s lessons about hunters that didn’t run to chase their prey. They didn’t need to run because they knew the kill was inevitable.

“Neo, your powers!” Neo closed her eyes at Ruby’s instruction, but when she opened them, there was no pink fire, only despair and fear.

There was light up ahead. The well was just in front of them. But from another side tunnel, more of the lurching skeletal Grimm emerged, one of them screaming it’s horrible mind-wrenching scream. Weiss covered her ears in the vain hope of blocking out the sound, but it was no use. The screech was inside her, reverberating throughout her being.

All of a sudden, she was pulled to one side down another tunnel. They ran blindly, following twists and turns and avoiding more and more of the slow moving horde. After a few more tunnels, it widened out into a large room and the group paused for a moment to look around, and Ruby froze, staring into the darkness.

Weiss thought this was possibly the one time she regretted having night vision, as she could see exactly how many Grimm there were packed into that corner of room. The others would only be able to see their glowing eyes and the flash of the bone, and hear the low moaning. Weiss was envious of them, as the Grimm began to unfold from their corner.

Turning on her heel, Weiss joined the others in their flight in the other direction, but fell to her knees when the Grimm wailed yet again.

Everything was so heavy.

Tired.

Weiss tried to crawl away from the encroaching mass, but she could barely move a muscle.

“An exit, there’s an exit.” Maria called out weakly and Weiss was just about able to raise her head to see a flight of stairs leading up. Weiss felt a hand on her back. It was Ruby urging her forward. She managed to crawl another few steps before a clattering sound distracted her.

Looking back, Weiss’ heart froze in fear. Blake lay there motionless, their eyes wide and unseeing as the Grimm trudged towards them.

“Blake! Get… up!” Yang called out, her voice strained with effort as she tried to crawl back for her partner.

“It’s fine… Just going to… rest…” Blake’s voice was weak, and Weiss felt Ruby leave her to reach out for Blake, who remained still and unmoving as one of the Grimm unfolded from the swarm. It didn’t get very far before it was annihilated by a fireball.

Looking back, Weiss saw Neo slump back, her energy spent and the fire in her eyes dying. But Blake was still lying there, and another one of the Grimm reached out a long spindly claw down towards the helpless Faunus.

No, it couldn’t end like this. Not for Blake.

White.

Pure white light erupted in the room, a familiar light that burned Weiss’ eyes as Ruby screamed for Blake. As quickly as it had come, the light faded and Weiss could move again. Scrambling to her feet, Weiss staggered up the stairs, glancing back briefly to confirm that Blake was okay, and Ruby and Yang were helping them up.

The Grimm that had previously been looming over Blake had all cowered away from the light of Ruby’s eyes. Reaching the top of the stairs, Weiss tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Raising Penny Dreadful, Weiss prepared to shoot their way out. Her finger was curling on the trigger when that awful noise came again.

It felt like it was eating away at her very soul, every dark thought came cascading back, her weaknesses, her flaws.

Her vision dimmed. She tried feebly to fire her gun, but her finger refused to move.

This was it.

She’d fought so hard.

Fought fang and claw to be herself, to be free.

But it didn’t matter.

She was going to die here, in the middle of nowhere.

Tired.

So very tired.

Time to sleep.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

White

The blinding light burst forth from Ruby once more, engulfing the room. Weiss could hear the Grimm screaming, only this time it was for themselves. Blinking away the spots in her eyes, Weiss looked back to see no Grimm. All the Grimm in the room had been destroyed.

They weren’t done yet though, Weiss could hear the moaning of more coming from the tunnels. Raising Penny Dreadful, Weiss fired a shot that cleaved through the lock of the door, and she threw it open.

She was only a little surprised to find herself back in the farmhouse, climbing out of the locked cellar they’d found yesterday. Also rather unsurprising was Qrow, slumped over the bar with several more bottles added to the pile Weiss had started.

There were hurried footsteps behind her as the rest of her team burst out of the cellar accompanied by Maria. The noise they made was enough to rouse Qrow from his stupor and he looked at them blearily. Yang and Blake pushed past and ran for the door, with Maria following them as fast as she could. Ruby meanwhile grabbed her uncle and started tugging at him.

“Uncle Qrow, get up! We need to go now!” As Qrow protested and tried to stop his niece, Weiss and Neo looked down at the hole, they could hear the Grimm approaching. If they just left, they’d escape out into the wilds. If they’d had this much difficulty with them, nobody would stand a chance.

“We’re not done, not yet.” Weiss muttered to herself, as she tried to come up with a plan. They couldn’t fight them directly, there were too many, their few attempts had proven so. She wasn’t sure if Ruby could use her silver eyes again, and Neo’s Maiden powers didn’t seem to be working. She needed another solution.

Then her eyes fell upon the still well-stocked shelves and the bottles there. Technically, alcohol was a solution.

Grabbing as many bottles as she could, Weiss started hurling them down the stairs, shattering them and soaking the floor in what she hoped was spirits. It was rather cathartic, after her weakness the night before, destroying the bottles like this.

“What are you doing?” Qrow slurred out as Neo joined Weiss in smashing bottles and throwing them down into the cellar. Weiss was pretty sure she heard more than one bounce off the head of one of the pursuing Grimm.

Deciding they’d done enough, Weiss gestured Neo back and the pastel girl joined Ruby in dragging Qrow out of the room. Weiss didn’t light the alcohol just yet. Truth be told, she wasn’t quite sure how her Semblance worked with regards to what counted as one of her fallen foes. And because they might be most horrifying Grimm Weiss had yet encountered, she wanted one.

Aiming carefully with Penny Dreadful, Weiss waited until one of the skeletal heads appeared over the lip of the door. The laser took its head clean off, and as its body started to disintegrate, Weiss used the Fire Dust in Lilie der Rache to ignite the spilled alcohol.

Satisfied they’d done their due diligence in trying to stop these Grimm, Weiss followed her girlfriends and the now stunned silent Qrow out of the house.

Yang was already revving Bumblebee anxiously, their things loaded haphazardly on the trailer, where Blake, Oscar and Maria sat.

“Go!” Ruby screamed at Yang the moment the remaining four had scrambled onto the back. Yang didn’t need telling twice and with a roar of protest at the added load, Bumblebee zoomed off, leaving the now smoking house behind.

They all took several minutes to catch their breath as Yang got them back onto the track, and they were able to relax just a little as they put as much distance between them and the farm.

“What were those things?” Blake asked quietly, breaking the shocked silence.

“The Apathy.” Maria croaked out, still sounding more than a little worse for wear after the encounter. “They aren’t strong or fast or all that tough. But they don’t need to be. First they drain any positivity away, leaving only negative thoughts, which will attract more Grimm. If that’s not enough, prolonged exposure dulls everything, including your will to go on.”

Maria sighed deeply, pulling one of the books she’d been reading out from under her cloak.

“Bartleby, the man who founded the farm, needed a way to cut costs on hiring hunters, and he thought he’d found one.” She flipped the book open and read aloud. “Managed to get two away from the pack, trek back was miserable, but got them in the cellar. My wife thinks I was out sealing up the waterway entrance. I’ll do it tomorrow and tell her the truth once they’ve calmed everyone down. I’m so tired.”

Something painful knotted in Weiss’ stomach as Maria closed the book. “I suspect the rest of the pack came looking for their captured brethren. They probably came in through the waterway.” She sighed sorrowfully, tucking the book away. “The plan worked. Nobody would have been sad, or happy, or angry. They wouldn’t have been anything, and then they became nothing.”

None of them spoke as they digested what they’d just heard, what they’d just experienced. The silence was broken by several buzzes and they all pulled out their scrolls to see a message from Neo, which Blake read out for Yang’s benefit.

‘I’m sorry for what I said about giving up, and for trying to manipulate you into it.’ Yang brought the bike to a halt to look back at the others.

“I’m sorry too. We can’t stop until the relic is safe.”

“It’s not your fault.” Blake said, jumping to Yang’s defence. “It was those things, the Apathy.” Yang, however, shook her head.

“You heard what the old lady said, they drain positivity. They don’t create negativity, only expose what’s already there.” The five girls exchanged glances, each remembering what had been said at the house, only now with the knowledge that that was how they all truly felt.

Without speaking, Yang kicked Bumblebee into gear again and continued riding in silence as they wondered where they could go from here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That went well didn't it? They may have made it out and escaped the farm, but the spectre of the Apathy will probably loom over them for some time. Hopefully they'll be able to take it as an opportunity to grow and make the best out of an awful situation. This was both easy and hard to write, I've been planning it for a long time but that doesn't make inflicting all this suffering on the characters any easier.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and helping keep my mood up with this. Lots of thanks too to the lovely [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and supporting me on my various endeavours.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	14. Chapter 14

They rode in silence for a long time, none of them really knowing what to talk about. Nobody wanted to recall what had happened down in the tunnels, though the events remained painfully fresh in everyone’s mind.

Weiss thought that getting away from the Apathy would make her feel better, but if anything, she only felt worse. A small part of her insisted that it wasn’t her fault, that it was the Apathy’s effect on her. The rest of her agreed with Yang though, her doubts and weakness had always been there. She really was her mother’s daughter after all.

Why hadn’t she been stronger and resisted their effects? Ruby had been able to. Maria too. Come to think of it, how had the old lady been able to stave off their influence?

“Miss Calavera?” She broke the silence and everyone in the trailer looked at her. “How come you were only affected by the Apathy when we came into contact with them?”

The old woman chuckled softly, shaking her head. “Oh, I was affected by those things alright. Really, I should have realised what was happening sooner. But it wasn’t anything I hadn’t said to myself before, and after the day we had yesterday, I just dismissed it as that.”

“You seemed fine, unlike the rest of us.” Yang said over her shoulder, but Maria just sighed.

“‘Seemed’ is the operative word there, Muscles. I’ve had plenty of practice pretending to be fine when I’m actually depressed as shit.” Neo let out a weak huff of laughter at the nickname, but no one else felt like laughing, so she fell silent quickly.

“Um, Miss Calavera, how do you know so much about the Grimm? And how did you know about my silver eye powers and how to make me use them like that?” Ruby asked tentatively, only for Maria to laugh again, though it was more genuine this time.

“Isn’t it obvious?” She grinned mischievously at Ruby whilst Weiss processed this information. Maria had been the one to get Ruby to use her eyes and save them?

“You have silver eyes too.” Qrow spoke for the first time since they’d left the farm, looking curiously at Maria.

“Had, Whiskey Breath, had.” Qrow’s curious look became a frown of distaste, and Weiss couldn’t help but snort at his expression and get in a quick jab.

“Not so fun when you’re on the receiving end, is it?” She needled, and gained a small amount of satisfaction at how he made a noise of disapproval and looked away.

“What happened, Miss Calavera?” Oscar asked, trying to steer things back on track.

Maria didn’t answer at first, instead opting to run her hand over the skull atop her cane. “It was a long time ago, I can’t have been much older than you lot.” She glanced around the teens, a wry smile twisting her face. “Tell me, have any of you heard of the Grimm Reaper?”

“She was this Huntress years ago. You used to tell me stories about her, Uncle Qrow.” The man nodded, looking back at Maria again.

“She was a legend, I was only a kid at the time. She never showed her face or used her real name, but everybody knew about her. I even based Harbinger off of her weapon. I wanted to be as good as the Grimm Reaper. But then she vanished.” Qrow elaborated for the benefit of the others. “At first, people thought she was just laying low or something. But eventually people decided she was probably dead.”

“Not for lack of trying on my part.” Maria added, closing her eyes and sighing deeply. “But that’s in the past. I’m a lot better now.”

“Wait… You mean…” Qrow stared at Maria in shock as did Ruby.

“Yes, I was the Grimm Reaper. It feels like a lifetime ago, before I lost my eyes.” She paused for a moment and basked in the stunned admiration she was receiving from Qrow and Ruby. “It’s rather gratifying to know people still remember me, not that I deserve to be remembered.”

“When you lost your eyes?”

“I was out on a job in Mistral, in the mountains. A small village was being terrorised by a Giant Nevermore. They couldn’t pay much, but it wasn’t really about the money for me. I liked the challenge.” A cocky grin spread across her face. “Didn’t know it would be my last.”

“The Nevermore did that to you?” Blake asked in a hushed tone, staring at the old woman’s prosthetic eyes.

“No, of course not. I was so focused on taking out the Grimm, I didn’t notice I’d been followed until it was too late.” Maria sighed again, reaching up to fiddle with her eyes. “I was young, and more than a little cocky. I’d never lost a fight until then. And I paid dearly for it. Three of them came for me, said their Master wanted me dead because of my eyes. I killed them all, of course, but not before they blinded me.”

She looked over at Qrow, a deep frown in place. “You said you wanted to be like me? Well, from what I’ve seen of you, you’re already there, being a depressed wreck.”

“Why would you say that?” Ruby looked appalled at Maria’s self-deprecation and the old woman merely snorted.

“After I lost my eyes I went into hiding, I was too afraid to fight anymore. What if someone else came to finish the job?” She turned her cane around to look into the face of the skull. “A hunter is supposed to protect others until the bitter end. I didn’t. I ran, I hid and I only looked out for myself. You should not aspire to be me. Especially when you’re all stronger than I was at your age.”

Despite Maria’s faith in her abilities, Weiss did not feel any better about herself or her weakness, and she got the impression Blake, Yang and Neo felt similarly. They all fell silent once more as they continued along the trail.

“Are we going the right way?” Oscar asked, looking ahead past Yang.

“Don’t know. I hope we are though, I don’t want to even think about having to turn back.” Yang answered, eyes focused on the track as she deftly avoided a few potholes.

Weiss was torn between starting some kind of banal conversation to keep her mind off what had happened and not wanting to talk to anyone about anything.

Weiss ultimately opted to curl into Neo’s side, though the pastel girl didn’t return the affection. There were a couple more attempts at conversation, all of them started by Ruby, but they petered out rather quickly. As Ruby opened her mouth again, there was a buzzing from her belt pouch.

“Did you set an alarm?” Blake asked as Ruby pulled out the scroll and peered at it in confusion.

“I didn’t…” She muttered, opening it up and squeaked in shock. “It’s Jaune!”

“What?!” Yang braked hard and brought the bike and trailer to a halt before turning around to look at the others.

“Yeah!” Ruby hit the answer button and held out the scroll as she set it to speaker. “Jaune?”

“Ruby? Ruby! Oh thank God, I’ve been checking my scroll for your signal ever since we got to the city.” Weiss blinked in surprise.

“City?” Yang turned back, started Bumblebee up again and gunned the engine. The trail twisted and turned a little bit and Jaune faded in and out of static for a bit. Eventually it stopped fading out and became stronger and stronger as they rode up a hill. When they crested the hill, Yang brought the bike to a halt again.

“I think we’re here.” She commented, leaning to the side to let the others see past her. Sure enough, in the middle distance, Weiss could see the tall walls of a city nestled between two mountains, and beyond them, the Atlesian Ocean glittering off in the distance.

“Jaune, we’re on our way. Meet us at the gates, will you?” With an affirmative from Jaune, Ruby closed up her scroll and Yang pulled away and brought them speeding down the hill towards the city.

Weiss breathed out a sigh of relief at this rare bit of good fortune, but as she did so, a thought occurred to her.

“We should probably tell someone about the tracks getting damaged, shouldn’t we?” She asked of the group, surprising them all.

“Oh, yeah. Not sure who though…” Qrow hummed in thought as the others shrugged.

“Someone in the local government? They’re probably responsible.” Blake suggested, and Qrow tilted his head thoughtfully.

“Maybe. Either that or someone who works at the train company.” Qrow pulled out his scroll and appeared to make a note, which surprised Weiss. It seemed uncharacteristically responsible of him to do something like that.

The last leg of the journey was mercifully short, possibly because their destination was within reach and Yang was probably being rather liberal with any speed limit there was. Soon enough they arrived at the main gate to the city. The train tracks they would have arrived by ran along the last stretch of road and into Argus.

There were a surprising number of people around outside the wall. There were even a few buildings and what looked like a temporary marketplace. Driving up, Yang turned right and pulled up beside a collection of garages.

“Last stop, Argus! All change here.” She joked, though Weiss could tell her heart wasn’t really in it. The group all got off the trailer, ignoring some of the curious looks they got from passersby, and milled around as Yang went to talk to the owner of the garage.

“Anyone see Jaune and the others?” Ruby asked, craning her neck and hopping back onto the trailer to look over the crowds. She and the others continued to look around for any sign of their friends as Yang returned and wheeled the bike over to one of the garages.

“We’ll have to think of something to do with the trailer. I don’t think we’ll need it in Atlas.” She commented as she locked the door and joined the rest of the group in their search for the others. “Maybe give Jaune another call?”

Just as Ruby pulled out her scroll, there was a loud scream of excitement that could only be from one person. “Cute boy Oz!” Weiss deftly stepped aside to avoid Nora as she rushed forward and crashed into Oscar, knocking them both to the ground.

“There you are! Are you all okay?” Ren asked as he and Jaune came running over as well, though their impacts were less meteoric as Weiss found herself pulled into a surprise hug from Ren of all people.

“We were so worried about you. We heard on the news that the tracks got damaged and the line between Argus and Mistral was closed.” Jaune informed them once he’d released Ruby from a hug.

“We’re fine...” Ruby answered for her team as a whole, though Weiss wasn’t sure she’d agree. Neither did Nora, it seemed, as she popped back to her feet and surveyed them all. 

“You sure? You don’t look fine. You look like Jaune after I’ve eaten half of his pancakes because he wasn’t paying attention.” Then she noticed Maria and cocked her head in confusion. “And who’s the old lady? Don’t tell me you added another person to your team. Five is already too many!”

“This is Maria Calavera.” Weiss introduced the old woman who waved cheerfully at the three teens. “As for how we met her…”

“It’s a long story.” Yang finished for her, giving Nora a look that she thankfully understood to mean ‘don’t ask’.

“Right. Well, let’s get going, then.” Jaune gestured for them all to follow him into the city. Weiss did a double take upon seeing it stretched out before her. It was similar to Mistral in a few regards. Much like the capital, Argus was built on a slope, this one leading down to the ocean, and she could see a few of the traditional Mistralian designs in the architecture that Neo had enjoyed pointing out to her. Yet the city also felt distinctly Atlesian, or rather Mantelian, too, trams running along the streets, the buildings packed together and built tall rather than wide.

Now that she had a better view of the ocean without a giant wall in the way, Weiss could see a few islands down in the bay, with long bridges reaching out to them from the shore.

“The Atlesian military base.” Ren informed her, seeing where she was looking, and Weiss nodded. Jaune led them over to a tram stop where they boarded one of them and began their descent down the incline.

“Argus is the biggest city in the kingdom outside of Mistral itself.” Jaune told them as they passed the narrow buildings and wound their way towards the ocean. “It’s normally the main port for trade between Mistral and Atlas.”

“Until recently, that is.” Nora chipped in with a frown, looking out across the ocean. “With Ironwood’s embargo, nothing’s going in or out of Atlas. We haven’t been here too long, but we found out that Argus needs the trade route, and the people here are suffering.”

“You’ve been doing research?” Blake asked as the tram pulled to a halt and the group disembarked.

“Not really research, more hearsay.” Jaune chuckled, looking oddly sheepish. Looking around, Weiss realised they appeared to be in a residential district, with no hotels or anything like that around.

“Is this where you’ve been staying?” Yang also appeared to have noticed that they weren’t in the vicinity of any businesses. “Did you rent an apartment or something?”

“Not exactly…” Jaune said, now rubbing at the back of his head awkwardly. Weiss was about to press further when there was a shout from nearby.

“There you are! You three just went tearing out of the house like it was on fire or something.” They all turned to look for who had spoken. Standing in an open doorway with a baby held in her arms was a blonde woman who looked familiar, yet Weiss was certain she’d never seen this woman before in her life.

“No. Way.” Weiss glanced over at Ruby, whose eyes were sparkling with glee as she looked between Jaune and the woman.

“Yes waaaaaay!” Nora trilled, skipping up to the house to fuss over the baby as Jaune waved at the woman.

“Hey, Saph.” He sighed before turning to the others. “Guys, this is my big sister, Saphron.” That certainly explained why the woman looked familiar. The newcomers all made their various greetings to Jaune’s sister.

“Well, don’t just stand there, come in, come in.” She walked back into the house, Nora following closely and the others trooped in after her. Saphron led the group into the living room and set the baby down beside some toys, letting Nora take over whilst she gestured for them to sit.

“Please, make yourselves at home.” She told them heading towards the kitchen. “Oh, and weapons in the closet by the door, please, so that Adrian doesn’t get his hands on them or anything.” Qrow got up to do a quick round and collected all their weapons as Ruby turned to Jaune, bouncing excitedly.

“I can’t believe I get to meet one of your sisters!” She squealed in delight, gazing after the woman. “I have so many questions.”

“Please, don’t.” Jaune groaned as Saphron returned bearing a tray with a teapot and several mismatched mugs.

“Awww, but I love telling stories about my baby bro.” Saphron cooed, setting the tray on the table in the middle of the room before reaching out to tousle Jaune’s hair.

“I am not a baby, Adrian is a baby.” Adrian did not seem best pleased about being addressed like this, as he huffed and glared up at Jaune, babbling in baby talk. Oddly, out of everyone present, Neo seemed the most enamoured with the infant, and she held out her scroll for Saphron to read.

“Oh, by all means, he likes meeting new people.” Smiling happily, Neo slid off the sofa to Adrian’s level and began trying to play with him. Meanwhile, Saphron handed out mugs of tea to everyone which Weiss took gratefully, despite not being as fond of tea as Blake.

“So are you the only Arc living in Argus, Saphron?” Blake asked, in between blowing on their tea.

“Yep! Moved out of the family farm the moment I could get away. Jaune and I are the only ones who are living away from home.” She reached out to ruffle Jaune’s hair again. “Guess you just wanted to be like your big sis, huh?”

“Saaaaaph.” He grumbled, batting his sister’s hand away.

“You’re not denying iiiiit!” Saphron singsonged gleefully relenting in her assault to smirk at the newcomers. “Did he ever tell you how we used to dress him up in our clothes when we were little? He’ll say he didn’t like it but he did really. He looked so cute in a skirt.”

“Combat skirts are great.” Qrow spoke up, crossing his legs to show them off. “And the kid’s got the legs to pull it off.”

“He certainly does.” Ren added, and Weiss noticed he shot Jaune a strange look, one with a soft smile that Weiss couldn’t quite work out the meaning of.

Weiss was distracted from Jaune’s protests as the front door opened and an olive skinned woman wearing glasses who looked to be about the same age as Saphron entered, carrying several bags of what looked like food.

“Oh, everyone, this is my wife, Terra Cotta.” Saphron got up from teasing her brother to meet Terra and plant a soft kiss on her cheek. Weiss was pretty sure Ruby was going to explode with glee, and it looked like Neo was as well, as she paused her playing with Adrian.

Weiss was reminded of something Neo had said back at the farm when she was suggesting they give up. That they could start a family together. Was that what Neo wanted? She hadn’t mentioned it before, but seeing Neo playing with Saphron and Terra’s son made her wonder.

She’d only thought about it in passing, but she had considered the possibility of having a family with Ruby, and seeing Saphron and Terra would have given her some hope that it were possible. Of course, now she knew better. She’d already doubted her ability as a parent, given who she’d been raised by, but now she was very sure that she was unfit to raise a child of her own, having given into the same vice as her mother. And besides that, how could she bring a child into this world, this cruel and harsh world forsaken by the gods? 

“This is quite the party, you weren’t kidding. Could some of you give me a hand with the groceries?” Weiss’ self-pity was interrupted by Terra’s call for help, which was answered by Ren and Ruby. As they left the room to help Terra, Jaune looked to the ones who remained behind.

“So, what happened after we split up?” He asked. They all looked uncomfortably at one another and threw a few worried glances at Saphron, who’d rejoined them and seemed politely interested in their ordeal as well.

“I think we can discuss that later. We’re all pretty tired from travelling cross country.” Qrow answered for them, his eyes flicking meaningfully at Saphron. Thankfully, Jaune had improved at picking up social cues and cottoned on to what Qrow was trying to say pretty quickly.

“Oh, okay, sure. You guys should rest up for a bit.” Weiss sighed in quiet relief at the reprieve, though there were still several doubts twisting in the back of her mind. She very much did not want to tell the others what had happened there, she wanted to forget it had ever happened. But she knew she couldn’t avoid it forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Argus at last, and soon on to Atlas. Although this is going to be another section where I take a few liberties with the timeline, just a couple of days isn't nearly long enough to fit in what I want. Also there's a lot of healing that needs to be done and just running off to Atlas immediately isn't going to help with that. As a sidenote, one thing I'm surprised resonated with my early access readers is Neo and baby Adrian, so that's definitely going to be coming up more.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being super helpful with it. Lots of thanks too to the lovely [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being so good and helpful.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	15. Chapter 15

Weiss hadn’t realised just how hungry she was until Ren and Jaune brought in several plates worth of sandwiches from the kitchen. She hadn’t really paid attention to how long they’d been travelling for and was surprised to find that it was already approaching evening. Then again, she had no idea for how long her alcohol-induced stupor had lasted, so it shouldn’t really be that surprising.

“You sure you don’t mind putting us up? I know there’s a lot of us, but we can pay.” Qrow asked Terra as he took a tray from her, freeing her up to pick up Adrian and carry him over to the sofa with Saphron. Neo looked rather disappointed that her time with the baby had been cut short, but she was mollified when Ruby passed her some food, which she scarfed down in short notice.

“No, no, you hunters do a lot for us and we’re willing to help out in any way we can.” Terra reassured him, absently bouncing Adrian on her lap as she spoke. “Though I was rather surprised to learn that you were being aided by students rather than fully qualified hunters.”

“Yes, well, what with everything that’s gone on, hunter training’s had to become a bit more... freeform.” Weiss rolled her eyes. She’d expected Qrow to be better at improvisation, but given his other inadequacies, she shouldn’t be all that surprised.

Weiss paused for a moment after that thought, then cursed herself mentally. She was in no place to judge Qrow for his habits, not anymore. Terra didn’t seem entirely convinced by Qrow’s explanation, as she fixed him with a sceptical look and forced him to continue his flailing.

“Don’t worry though, these kids are way better than we were at their age. Not me, of course, but others. Not to say current hunters aren’t competent.” Weiss wondered if she should step in to save Qrow from himself, but was stopped from doing so by Ruby, who spoke up instead.

“So, Terra, how did you and Saphron meet?” She asked, giving the woman her most winsome smile. Terra didn’t answer, still looking suspiciously up at Qrow, so Saphron answered instead.

“We met at university here in Argus.” She told the group, shooting Terra a warning look as the other woman opened her mouth. “Like I said, I moved away from home as soon as I could, and the university here seemed like the best choice. I met Terra in our first lecture.”

“You mean  _ my  _ first lecture.” Terra smirked at her wife and Qrow breathed a sigh in relief that she’d dropped the subject. “This dummy was in the wrong lecture hall and didn’t realise for at least half an hour because she was so distracted by me.”

“Meanie.” Saphron pouted, puffing out her cheeks. “It’s your fault, really. You’re too cute for your own good.”

“I’m not  _ that  _ cute.”

“Yes, you are. And I challenge you to try growing up in a tiny town in the middle of Nowhere, Vale where the only girls your age are your sisters.” Saphron leaned over to poke Terra’s cheek, making Adrian giggle as his mothers play-fought. “Then we’ll see if you can resist the urge to stare at the most beautiful woman you’d ever seen.”

“You know, whenever you say things like that, I have to wonder whether your parents named you for Sappho.”

“Rude!” Folding her arms, Saphron huffed in mock irritation, to which Ruby couldn’t contain her glee anymore and let out a high pitched squeal.

“You two are just so cuuuuute!” Ruby flailed and the two older women blushed. “That’s such a great story!”

“Hey, you and Weiss have a good meet-cute story too.” Nora grinned mischievously, which promptly shut Ruby up and made Weiss join in with the blushing.

“It wasn’t cute at all.” Ruby whined as the others snickered, the weight of what had happened at Brunswick Farm seemed to be fading for the group, though it still lingered at the back of Weiss’ mind as Blake chipped in.

“You literally exploded right in front of her. If I didn’t know it was because of Dust, I’d have said it was gay overload.” Weiss wasn’t sure what was redder, her and Ruby’s faces, or the lining of their cloaks as Saphron and Terra joined in with the laughter.

“I didn’t know I was gay back then!” Ruby protested. “And Weiss hated me back then.”

“I did not hate you.” Weiss corrected, her feathers ruffling indignantly at the accusation.

“You kinda did, Weiss.” Jaune chipped in now, clearly enjoying the teasing far more than Weiss thought was appropriate. “Though, to be fair, I think you hated everyone back then.”

“I did not hate everyone.” Weiss paused in thought for a moment. “I did hate you though.”

“What?!”

“You kept hitting on me even though I was clearly uninterested, and your breath was awful.”

“I was airsick!”

“Then you should have gotten a breath mint or something.” Weiss shot back smoothly.

“Honestly, Weiss, I’m with Jaune on the hating everyone thing.” Yang added, looking a lot better than she had earlier that day. “Don’t you remember the runaway Blake incident and the massive anti-Faunus rant that led to it?”

Saphron and Terra blinked in confusion at this particular memory whilst Weiss scowled at Yang for daring to bring it up. “Anti-Faunus? But you’re a Faunus yourself.” Saphron pointed out.

“Let’s just say I had a rather unhappy childhood, being raised by a bigoted piece of scum. I don’t like to talk about it, or being reminded of what I was like back then.” Weiss explained frostily, still glaring at Yang. “I’d like to think I’m better now than I was.”

“You are, Princess.” Ruby reassured her and Weiss smiled faintly, though she still felt bad about souring the mood.

“She calls you Princess? That is so precious!” Saphron cooed, thankfully bringing everyone’s attention back to happier things.

“It’s not a big deal or anything.” Weiss mumbled, blushing again as Nora got an evil grin on her face.

“That’s nothing. Neo calls her Snowflake.” She informed the older women gleefully whilst Weiss buried her face in her hands in sheer mortification.

“Neopolitan does?” Peeking out from between her fingers, Weiss watched Saphron look between the two Atlesian women in mild confusion. “But I thought Ruby and Weiss were the ones dating.”

“We are.” Ruby confirmed, sounding more than a little bit nervous. This would be the first time they’d told anyone outside of their close circle about their relationship. “And we’re both dating Neo as well.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that was a thing.” Saphron didn’t sound at all put off or disgusted by this, only politely interested. “Well, if it works for you, that’s great.”

“You kids and your overcomplicated relationships.” Maria tutted, shaking her head and earning a glare from Neo. “Well, you’re not hurting anyone, so I can’t really tell you to stop, and it’s not my place either.”

Weiss sighed in quiet relief, and was surprised by its twin coming from Jaune. What did he have to be relieved about? Any follow ups to this line of conversation were interrupted, however, by the buzzing of a scroll. Everyone pulled theirs to check, but it was Terra’s that was buzzing.

“It’s work,  _ again. _ ” She informed Saphron, who rolled her eyes. “I have to take this, can you…?” She offered her Adrian, but Neo intercepted the baby and continued to gleefully dote on him, even letting him play with her hat. Terra, meanwhile, just shrugged and answered her scroll, heading into the kitchen to talk privately.

“Terra works as a technician for the CCT relay tower, but the Atlas military radar system is also housed there, so guess who’s being blamed for it being faulty recently?” Saphron told the rest of the group, reaching out to tickle Adrian as Neo bounced him on her lap.

“If any of the upper brass knew anything about technology, they’d know I don’t even have access to their systems.” Terra called out, poking her head out from the kitchen, hand covering the receiver of her scroll before returning to her conversation with a hasty apology.

“So, what are you all planning to do tomorrow?” Saphron asked and they all looked to Ruby.

“Well, we’re trying to get to Atlas, so I guess we could try at the military base.” Ruby shrugged, looking a little uncertain. It hadn’t been her plan, more Qrow and Ozpin’s, but with the latter gone and the former not in great shape to lead them…

“Well, good luck with that.” Saphron frowned, reclaiming Adrian from Neo. “The commander of the base, Special Operative Cordovin, has got a bit of a reputation as a hard-ass.” She covered her son’s ears for the last part as Terra returned from the kitchen.

“Did you say Cordovin?” Maria asked innocently, her mechanical eyes narrowed at Saphron.

“Yes, I did. Do you know her?”

“What? No, of course not! As if I’d associate with that kind of person. I thought you said Corsican, my hearing isn't what it used to be.” Everyone else seemed to accept this, but Weiss wasn’t quite so sure.

“Well, we’ve got to try.” Ruby stated firmly and the others nodded in agreement.

“Good luck, then.” Terra took Adrian from Saphron. “I’m going to put Adrian down for his nap. Say goodbye, Adrian.” The baby babbled and waved to the group as Terra carried him upstairs.

“I’m afraid we haven’t got much space, these three have had to share a bed in one of the spare rooms.”

“We don’t mind, Mrs Cotta-Arc.” Ren told Saphron, unusually quickly for the normally taciturn young man.

“Please don’t call me that, Ren, you’re making me feel old.” Saphron groaned. “Anyway, we’ve got another spare bed in the other room and plenty of spare bedding.”

“I think it’d be best if Ms Calavera and I took the room, leave you kids alone. You can have the bed.” Qrow told Maria, who scowled up at him.

“What? Just because I’m old, you think I need to be coddled?”

“Well if you don’t want the bed, then…”

“I never said that.” Maria cut in quickly, hopping off her chair and hobbling for the stairs. “What sort of man would think of making a poor old blind woman sleep on the floor?”

“That’s what I thought.” Qrow followed Maria to the stairs. “I’m going to turn in early, I suggest the six of you do the same. I doubt any we got last night was any good for us.” Waving goodnight to them, Qrow disappeared up the stairs.

“Do you three mind if I bunk with you?” Oscar asked Jaune and his teammates, who looked between each other. Nora did not look best pleased by this, but she was the first to nod.

“Sure, let’s get you some bedding.” Jaune got up and led the others away, but he paused before heading upstairs. “We can talk tomorrow about what happened after the crash. Goodnight, girls. Night, Saph.”

“I’m afraid here’s the only space we’ve got left. I don’t think you’ll all fit on the sofas though.” Saphron told the five that remained, walking over to the understairs cupboard and pulling out a pile of sheets.

“We’ll work something out. Thank you again for letting us stay here.” Ruby took the bedding from Saphron with a grateful smile.

“It’s no trouble, there’s a bathroom down the hall that you can use to change in. I’m going to go see if Terra needs any help with Adrian. Good night.” The rest of them said their good nights to Saphron, who went upstairs as well. Ruby handed out the sheets to lay out on the sofas and floor.

“Blake, Yang, you can take the sofas.” She told the two teammates. “I don’t really want to sleep alone again, and the three of us won’t fit on one.” Weiss flinched away at the reminder of her actions last night.

“Are you sure you want that?” She asked quietly, unable to meet Ruby’s eyes.

“Of course I do.” She reached out for Weiss, but the Faunus still shied away from her and shook her head.

“You shouldn’t, I don’t deserve it. Not after what happened.” Blake and Yang exchanged confused looks as Ruby simply set her jaw.

“I know what I want, Weiss, don’t try to tell me otherwise.” Sighing, Ruby stepped back to look at the others. “And… we can’t just ignore what happened, any of it. We all said things at that place, and if we just pretend it never happened, we’re not going to be able to move past it.”

Yang looked particularly uncomfortable, and Weiss could definitely relate. She just wanted this whole day to be over so she could put it behind her.

“I’m serious, we’ve let these things go unaddressed for far too long.” Ruby folded her arms and glared at her team.

“...Ruby’s right.” Blake’s voice was quiet, but it held firm as they looked at Yang. “Even if we’re back together, there’s still things that we haven’t resolved, and they aren’t just going to go away.”

“Exactly.” Ruby looked over at Yang who refused to meet her sister’s gaze. “We’re supposed to be a team, a family. That means we stick together.”

“Like how you and Weiss stuck with me when I was on Patch?” Yang asked bitterly, still not looking up.

“Yang, we-.”

“I don’t care that you had reasons, okay? You could have had the best intentions, that still doesn’t make it hurt any less.” Finally looking up, Yang’s gaze drifted over Weiss, Ruby and Blake. “I’ve been there for the three of you whenever you needed me. And the one time I needed you the most, you weren’t there.”

“I didn’t think you wanted me.” Weiss was surprised at herself that she spoke, originally intending to remain silent. “You barely spoke to me. I tried to help you, Yang, but you turned me away.”

“I know… I never said that it made sense or that it was fair.” Yang admitted, looking down at her hands again. “But all I can think about is how everyone just keeps leaving me alone or doesn’t care about me. I should really just expect it by now.”

“We do care about you, Yang. We love you, all of us.” Ruby insisted, finally having enough with the distance between them and sitting down beside her sister and wrapping an arm around her. “How can we make it better? How do we fix this?”

“That’s the thing, I don’t think you can.” Yang admitted, accepting Ruby’s hug but barely acknowledging it. “It happened, and we can’t change that.”

“Then we do better.” Ruby asserted firmly, punctuating it with a squeeze of Yang’s shoulder. “But Weiss has a point too. You never tell us when you need help, and it’s not fair for you to expect us to just know when you need us.”

“Not all of us are as emotionally intelligent or empathetic as you, Yang.” Blake added, attempting a wry smile. “I know I’m particularly inept when it comes to knowing how other people feel.” Yang gave them a look and they hastily tacked on. “Not that I’m trying to excuse or explain my actions.”

“No, you’re right, I should be better about sharing my feelings. You’d think I’d have learned by now.”

“Well, we’ll also ask you, because we have relied on you a lot without thinking about you.” Ruby rested her head on Yang’s shoulder. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry for leaving you.”

“I’m sorry too.” Weiss apologised automatically, her heart not really in it. It wasn’t in anything anymore. Even though she was far far away from those creatures, the hopelessness still remained. Unfortunately, Yang seemed to pick up on the perfunctory nature of her apology and looked over at Weiss.

“Weiss? What happened at the farm?” She asked, pushing Ruby away to focus on her. “Is it to do with why you were gone when we woke up this morning?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Weiss mumbled, her wings drawing in to protect herself. “And even if it did, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“We just want to help you.”

“This isn’t like us failing Yang. I was weak. This is on me.”

_ ‘It’s not just about you drinking, Weiss, it’s what caused it.’  _ Neo finally joined the conversation, not really having had much of an involvement in Yang’s issues. Blake shot Weiss a shocked look, and it seemed Neo had forgotten they understood ASL as the pastel girl hesitated for a moment before continuing.  _ ‘None of us were nearly as badly affected by the Apathy as you were.’ _

“Well, none of you had your faith shattered.” Weiss spat back, annoyed that Neo had let her moment of weakness slip. “I’m not like you or Blake. I believed in the gods, that they had a plan for us. I may not have been as devout as some, but I still believed.”

“Weiss, I-.”

“You what, Blake? You were right all along? You can just say ‘I told you so’.” Weiss snapped irritably. She didn’t need her naivete put on parade any more than it already had been.

“I was going to say nothing of the sort.” Blake chided, their voice still calm and gentle in the face of Weiss’ anger.

“You might as well. It’s not like I could feel any more foolish.” Folding her arms, Weiss looked at the bookshelves, purposefully avoiding the others’ eyes as much as possible. “I prayed to them, you know? Not often, but I did. I prayed that they’d watch over me, over all of us. Can you believe it? I prayed to the god that wiped out humanity for him to keep us safe. What a fucking joke.”

“Weiss-.” Weiss stood up angrily and started to pace the room, her wings twitching restlessly.

“The gods are cruel and don’t care about us. They didn’t create us or bless us with their gifts. We’re poor facsimiles of humanity, me even more so, since I’m not even human.” She stopped in her striding to look back at Ruby and the others. “Why are you even asking me about this? It’s not something we can just change. Why not ask Neo why she was trying to emotionally manipulate you?”

It was a low blow, but Weiss didn’t care. Anything to change the subject away from her and everything that had happened to her. “Neo did what?” The distraction did seem to have worked as Yang gave Neo a sharp look.

“This morning, after we found Weiss, Neo said some things. She tried to use Weiss’ state to back up her argument about us giving up and running away.” Weiss felt a few threads of guilt worm their way into her as a similarly guilty look crossed Neo’s face.

_ ‘I… it’s no excuse for it, but I think those Grimm, the Apathy, brought the bits of me that are more Cinder to the fore.’  _ Yang’s look softened as Ruby translated for her.  _ ‘It’s exactly what I was afraid of, that I got more from her than just her anger.’ _

“I’m sorry, Neo.” Ruby slipped off the sofa to hug her girlfriend. “I promise we’ll help however we can. You’re not Cinder, you’re still Neo, you always will be.” Weiss took advantage of this momentary distraction to slip away from the living room and lock herself in the bathroom Saphron had told them about.

Feeling utterly drained, Weiss sat down on the closed toilet seat and buried her face in her hands. For all her team’s desire to help and no matter how much of a difference they could make to the others, she really saw no way she could be helped.

Looking up from her hands, Weiss looked around the bathroom and took note of the shower and the towels left on the rack. It was presumptuous, but after wading through the water tunnels underground Weiss was in need of a shower.

Stripping off, Weiss squeezed into the cubicle, her wings making it rather difficult to maneuver in the small space. Turning on the shower, Weiss’ hand hesitated over the temperature control knob for a moment before turning it as hot as it would go.

She knew she shouldn’t, that she was better than this and had moved past it, but at least it wasn’t trying to find solace at the bottom of a bottle, and perhaps the pain would bring her some clarity.

A few minutes in, Weiss could hear a knocking on the bathroom door and Ruby calling for her, but she didn’t answer. Instead, Weiss turned the shower up to drown out the sound and rested her head against the wall, until the faint questioning ceased and she was left alone in the scalding cascade with only her guilt for company.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah yes, happy domestic fluff and shenanigans followed by lovely angst and a bit of a backslide for Weiss. Poor girl's got issues that aren't easily solved. At least Yang's got some resolution to her feelings of abandonment, though again, these things aren't just going to be fixed by a single conversation. 
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being so good and helpful. Lots of thanks too to the lovely [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and just being the best.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	16. Chapter 16

Weiss did not sleep beside Ruby and Neo that night. By the time she’d exited the bathroom. The makeshift beds had been made and Weiss had silently taken some of the bedding and made a small pile for herself in the corner of the room. None of the others had questioned her decision, which Weiss was both thankful for and a little upset about. Despite her despair, if Ruby or Neo had asked her to join them one last time, she would have. Even if she didn’t deserve it, what was one more moment of weakness? 

It was uncomfortable sleeping on her own. Before last night, she hadn’t slept alone in several weeks, and she’d grown very used to the comforting weight of a body slumbering beside her. Perhaps it was this discomfort that caused her to wake up early. So early, in fact, dawn had yet to break.

Weiss tried fruitlessly for a few minutes to fall asleep again, but it would not come. Sighing in annoyance, she sat up quietly and looked over at the rest of her team. Blake and Yang had taken the sofas as suggested, Yang half falling off hers, her prosthetic lying detached on the table. Her and Blake’s heads were beside each other, in contrast to how they’d been when Weiss had fallen asleep, and she wondered if they’d been talking late into the night.

Ruby and Neo were entangled in a pile of blankets a little way away, and Weiss could just about make out the head of pink and brown hair resting on top of Ruby’s chest, which rose and fell steadily. Weiss looked at her sleeping girlfriends sadly and a dark thought crept into her mind. Could they really be girlfriends for much longer if Weiss continued like this?

She didn’t want to break up with them, but since there was no fixing what was wrong with her and doing so would be denying reality, Weiss couldn’t see much of an alternative. At least now that they were far far away from the Apathy she could think a little more rationally about her lapse in judgement. A single moment of weakness like that wasn’t enough to end their relationship over, but it didn’t change the fact that the temptation was there.

Even now, with these unpleasant thoughts drifting through her head, the temptation to drown them out and take the edge off gnawed at her. Shaking her head violently in the hopes of clearing it, Weiss got to her feet and padded out of the living room and into the kitchen. Some water might help slake her thirst.

Weiss felt a little uncomfortable going through her hosts’ cupboards in search of a glass, but she eventually managed to find one and was gulping down water in short order. Setting down the glass once she’d drained it, Weiss glanced out the window into the slowly lightening city. The front of the house was facing north and Weiss could just make out between some buildings the darkly glittering ocean.

That was something else to dread. Soon they’d be crossing that expanse and heading to Atlas, back into Jacques Schnee’s territory. This certainly wasn’t what she’d expected her return to her birthplace to be like. After her recent sojourn in Menagerie, Weiss had been reconsidering her stance on the release of the information she held about the SDC’s shady dealings. Before she’d learned of their destination, Weiss had planned on sharing her information with Ghira, and hopefully having the backing of the new White Fang to help her.

Unfortunately, there hadn’t been enough time before they departed Mistral to put any sort of effective plan in place. Not only that, but what with the embargo and Atlas closing its borders, now would probably be the worst time to destabilise one of the biggest companies in the world, as well as a few governments, whilst she was at it.

Then again, since nothing really mattered, why should she care? Weiss groaned loudly. Nothing made sense anymore. She kept having these dark thoughts, and without one of her sources of guidance, she just didn’t know what to do anymore other than just blindly follow after Ruby.

“Morning, Weiss.” The unexpected greeting made Weiss jump, her wings flaring out in surprise and knocking the glass off the countertop. She lunged to catch it, but the intruder was faster. “Careful with those,” Blake reminded Weiss gently, placing the glass in the sink. “Though it does remind me why I’m glad I have ears instead of a tail. I’d probably end up knocking all sorts of things off.”

“Why are you awake?” Weiss asked sharply, folding her arms and still feeling rather displeased about the surprise interruption. “You’re normally quite a heavy sleeper.”

“I’m also normally not haunted by nightmares of Grimm nearly killing me.” Blake fired back, leaning back against the sink, and Weiss winced a little.

“The Apathy got to you that much?”

“It’s not a matter of them ‘getting to me’. You didn’t feel it, just drawing breath was a monumental effort. I was being crushed by the weight of every bad decision I’d ever made.” Blake wrapped their arms around themselves for comfort and gazed down at their shoes. “Leaving Mom and Dad, breaking things off with Ilia, dating Adam, leaving you all. Leaving Yang. Amongst countless others.”

“It was that bad?” Weiss had thought her exposure to the Apathy had been bad enough, but it was barely comparable to what Blake was describing.

“No. It was worse.” They shook their head, as though trying to clear it. “Those… things… they got to us all, and not in the same ways either, preying upon our deepest fears and insecurities.”

Weiss didn’t reply. It sounded as though Blake had put a lot of thought into what had happened back at the farm.

“I’ll probably be haunted by those things in my nightmares for the rest of my life, or until something else gets even closer to killing me.” The cat Faunus then let out a small chuckle, surprising Weiss. “Even so, I do feel oddly grateful for the experience.”

“You what?”

“I know it doesn’t make much sense, but coming that close to death, it reminded me of something.” Blake sighed, and looked up at Weiss. “We both know the numbers, life expectancies for hunters. Before, they were just that, numbers. Not even Beacon and… Adam really drove it home. Every time we go into a fight, it could be our last.”

“Why would you feel grateful for that?” Weiss asked in confused shock and Blake shrugged.

“It reminded me that our lives are painful and short, and that we should try to wring every bit of goodness out of it we can. I’m tired of this… distance between me and Yang. I don’t know how I’m going to make things right between us, but I want to. She’s the best thing in my life, and I’m not losing it.” Blake’s jaw was set in determination and they cast a glance at the door towards their sleeping compatriots.

“Why are you telling me this?” Weiss asked, shifting uncomfortably in place as Blake shrugged.

“Because you’re the only one up and talking things through helps me to process them.” They looked expectantly at Weiss, who returned their gaze flatly.

“There’s nothing to talk about. I told you last night, this isn’t something we can just fix, like our relationships with each other. This is just something I have to learn to live with, somehow.” The words felt bitter in Weiss’ mouth as she lied to Blake. She was already certain that there was no way she was going to be able to live with this colder and darker world she’d been exposed to.

“Was your faith in the gods such an integral part of you?”

“It’s easy for you to say, you never believed.” Weiss fired back, retreading the same argument as last night, only this time, Blake shook their head.

“Just because I didn’t believe, doesn’t mean learning about that about the gods was easy for me.” Blake sighed, rubbing at the bridge of their nose. “If I’m honest, I think knowing the reality is somehow worse than what I believed before.”

“Easy enough to say.”

“You’re right, it is. And I know that it’s incredibly hard on you to learn this, but I can’t help but remember what you told me back on Menagerie about carrying items that belonged to the people you lost to remember them.” Blake reached up and fiddled with one of their gold earrings. “Was doing that reliant on the gods being good and merciful?”

Weiss blinked, unable to come up with a cogent answer, and before she could throw out some kind of hastily cobbled together response, there was a sleepily bemused call from the living room. “Blake? Blake?”

Ears twitching back at Yang’s calls, Blake gave Weiss a small smile and walked over to the kitchen door. “Just... think about it, please. For me?.” Without waiting for an answer, Blake left the room, calling softly back to Yang as they left.

Weiss remained in the kitchen for a little while longer, mulling over Blake’s words, before shaking her head and leaving after them and making her way to the bathroom. They had a meeting with the military, and despite her distaste for them, it was in their best interests to make a good impression.

* * *

“It’s almost as though they don’t want visitors or something.” Nora commented as they trudged along the long bridge out to the island that housed the military base. “They could at least offer like a shuttle service or something.”

“Nora, it’s a military base, it’s not the sort of place people just visit.” Ren pointed out, rolling his eyes fondly. Ruby and Qrow were leading the way. The man had even shaved for the occasion at Weiss’ suggestion that they look as presentable as possible so that they’d be taken seriously. She herself kept her cloak wrapped fairly tightly around herself to conceal her wings. She was loath to do it, but one Faunus in the group was already a point against them, and Weiss would never ask Blake to hide themselves again.

As they approached the gate, Weiss was mildly worried by the presence of several guards along the wall, all with their weapons pointed at them. They did sort of stand out as hunters. Nobody else dressed as ostentatiously as hunters, though Weiss wasn’t entirely sure why. That and the fact they were clearly heavily armed probably didn’t help either.

Naturally, the gate was firmly closed and there were a pair of guards standing to attention and watching the motley group. “Halt! The Mistral-Atlas border is closed. Please, return to the mainland.”

“You know, you could have set up a sign at the start of the bridge so we didn’t have to walk all this way.” Nora complained loudly, crossing her arms in a huff.

“There was a sign, Nora, we just ignored it.” Jaune reminded her, and she just stuck her tongue out at him as Qrow stepped forward.

“Listen, I’m friends with Ironwood-.”

“ _ General  _ Ironwood.” One of the guards interrupted, glaring at Qrow who sighed deeply.

“Fine,  _ General  _ Ironwood, I need to get in contact with him.”

“That is not possible, the General is far too important to be bothered by some random civilian who claims to be his friend.” The other guard replied, staring down Qrow, who let out an offended snort.

“Random civilian? I’m a huntsman, here’s my license.” Qrow reached into his jacket for his scroll, but as he did so, the two guards drew their pistols and pointed them at him. “Easy, easy. Wow you guys are jumpy.” Qrow slowly withdrew his scroll and opened it up to display his hunter’s license.

“Whether you’re a licensed hunter or not is irrelevant, sir, the border’s still closed.”

“Can’t you just send my credentials through to Iro-  _ General  _ Ironwood and let him decide what to do?” The two guards glanced at each other, their resolve clearly wavering as they lowered their guns slightly.

“Possibly…” Weiss rolled her eyes. She wouldn’t say she was familiar with Atlas Military types, but she recognised the behaviour. The lack of independent thought and need to be ordered around. She’d intended to remain silent for this, but someone needed to step in.

“Gentlemen, I am an Atlesian citizen. These people have been aiding me in my attempts at repatriation. Here’s my identification.” Weiss held out her scroll for them to look at, finger held over her name but still allowing them to see the clear statement of her citizenship. “I would be very much indebted to you if you would allow us to talk to the General.”

Weiss’ attempt to take control of the conversation seemed to pay off as the guards exchanged another look and holstered their guns. “You may talk to our commanding officer, we’ll go fetch her.” The two guards turned on their heel and marched off into the base.

“That didn’t go quite as badly as I thought it might.” Yang commented, placing her hands behind her head and looking between the group. “I suppose they’re fetching this Special Operative Cordovin.”

“What’s wrong?” Blake suddenly asked, looking down suspiciously at Maria, who now that Weiss was paying attention to her, did look rather shifty.

“I… Remember when I said I didn’t know Cordovin? That may have been a teensy weensy lie on my part.” Maria grinned sheepishly up at the others, who all groaned.

“Why would you lie about being friends with her? If anything, it might help.” Ruby asked in what Weiss could only describe as a fit of over-optimistic hope.

“I wouldn’t exactly call us friends. I mean, we used to be a lot more than that, if you catch my meaning, but then things didn’t exactly end well.”

“Oh my go- Are you seriously telling us that this woman, Cordovin, is your ex?!” Yang groaned, slapping her hand to her forehead.

“Pretty much.” Maria shrugged, still looking rather sheepish. “And it’s not really my fault things went south between us. You bring one bag of cashews on a flight and suddenly you’re breaking half a dozen rules and regulations, and that need of hers to ‘climb the career ladder’... Honestly, the woman cared more about her job than me!”

“We’re fucked.” Qrow groaned, rubbing at his temples tiredly.

“Now, now, let’s not give up hope. Maybe she’s forgotten, like she forgot our anniversary.”

Weiss could only sigh deeply. Another day and yet another obstacle. Weiss was almost glad Jinn had told them the gods were absent, otherwise Weiss may have been inclined to believe they were actively conspiring against the ragtag group.

Weiss was distracted from her negativity by the return of the two guards who approached the gate and opened it. “Introducing Special Operative Caroline Cordovin!” They stepped back and Weiss heard Nora bite back a snicker. The woman did seem to be about the same age as Maria and was just as short. She gazed haughtily up at the group arrayed before her, then her eyes fell upon Maria and they narrowed dangerously.

“Maria, I didn’t expect you to come crawling back.” She smirked as Maria stepped forward.

“Ah, Caroline, glad to see you’re still as bitchy as ever.”

“Of the two of us, you’re the bitch!”

“You stood me up for our anniversary dinner three times!”

“I had to put in those extra hours so I could get that promotion!”

“Always, about work with you, isn’t it? They say time changes people, but you’ve still got that stick up your ass!”

“If I’ve got anything stuck up there it’s because of you, you pervert!”

“Oh don’t you even try to pretend I wasn’t the best lay you’ve ever had!” Weiss looked helplessly over at Ruby as the bitter argument continued. This was getting way out of hand, especially with impressionable and innocent fourteen-year-old ears listening. Thankfully, Ruby seemed to agree, as she stepped in before any of the details could get more lurid.

“Um, excuse me?” She interrupted timidly, pushing Maria aside to talk to Cordovin. “Um, Miss Cordovin? Hi, my name is Ruby Rose. I was hoping you’d hear us out abo-.”

“I’ve already heard enough.” Cordovin snapped up at Ruby. “I was considering hearing your plea, especially as you have one of Atlas’ citizens amongst you. But now I see you’re consorting with the likes of this Witch-.”

“Love you too, She-devil!” Maria fired back before Yang grabbed her and covered her mouth.

“And none of you ruffians look like you could possibly be from the glorious kingdom of Atlas.” Cordovin continued, sniffing haughtily, her gaze lingering on Oscar in particular.

“Hey! Three of us are from Atlas, you judgemental old cow.” Nora hollered, only for Ren to step in and cover her mouth as well.

“You’re not helping, Nora. And weren’t you telling Jaune just last night how you’re Mantellian and that it’s totally different to Atlesian?” Weiss sighed deeply at this latest setback and stepped up again.

“I’m the Atlesian citizen, Ma’am. If you could just hear us out.” Cordovin’s eyes widened when she looked at Weiss and a sneer of disgust crossed her face before she looked to the guards.

“Why did neither of you two tell me that the Atlesian citizen was one of the Schnee bastards?” She hissed at the guards, and Weiss was forced to hold Neo back, the diminutive girl’s eyes starting to glow dangerously.

“Excuse me?” Ruby asked, her voice dangerously sharp.

“I don’t care what General Ironwood has to say about the animals, they sullied one of the great houses of Atlas!” Weiss was sorely tempted to let Neo loose and see how the military handled an angry Maiden, but she kept a hold of her.

“We are not animals!” Blake growled, stalking forward with menace in their eyes.

“No, well I shall use small words you simple folk can understand anyway. The border is closed and it is my sworn duty to uphold it, for only I have the wit and tenacity to do so!” Cordovin announced smugly.

“Or maybe it’s because no one in Atlas can stand you and they rewarded your ‘wit’ and ‘tenacity’ with a meaningless promotion that got you as far away from them as possible!” Maria called out, having freed her mouth briefly from Yang’s hold.

“You bitch! How dare you say that! Why, I ought to have you clapped in irons for disrespecting an officer of the Atlesian Military.” Cordovin blustered angrily.

“Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? And I thought I was the pervert, you kinky she-devil!” Maria crowed gleefully before Yang was able to get a hand over her mouth again.

“Guards! We’re done here! Make sure this lot leaves the island too! Use force if necessary!” With that, Cordovin turned on her heel and marched back into the base, the gate slamming shut behind her, and the group left with a large contingent of Atlas soldiers still pointing their rifles at them.

“Yeah, you’d better run!” Nora called out as Ren released her.

“Nora…” Ren sighed deeply, shaking his head as the group started back towards the mainland.

“You seriously dated that racist old bag?!” Yang asked Maria, releasing the old woman to hobble along.

“She didn’t used to be so bad… It was a different time back then anyway.” Maria waved off Yang’s concerns.

“And those sorts of views weren’t okay back then either.” Blake pointed out, ears flicking in annoyance, as Weiss moved her cloak out the way so her wings could flare in annoyance as they’d been wanting to do for the last several minutes.

“So what’s the plan?” Jaune asked as Qrow groaned.

“That was the plan, and it just slammed the door in our face.” He grumbled, taking long strides to get ahead of the group.

“Where are you going?” Ruby asked and he merely pulled out his hip flask and shook it meaningfully. “Uncle Qrow, I don’t think that’s a good idea…” Her words fell on deaf ears as Qrow simply sped up and left them in his wake.

“We don’t need him, we can come up with a new plan ourselves. Besides, we’ve still got Ozpin!” Nora chirped, not noticing how the group who’d gone to the farm all flinched at the mention of Ozpin’s name.

“Yeah, about that…” Oscar mumbled, scratching at the back of his head awkwardly. “There’s something we need to tell you when we get back to the house.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I enjoyed writing Maria and Cordovin's back and forth far too much, to the point where I've bandied about on my server the idea of writing a oneshot that's just them being bitchy to one another over their past relationship. In the meantime though, we've got a fun conversation with JNR in the next chapter, hopefully they'll take the news better than Weiss and some of the others did.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being ever so cute. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being one of the best girlfriends.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	17. Chapter 17

“Can’t you just tell us now?” Nora whined at Yang who shook her head for the thirteenth time. They were about halfway back to the house and Nora hadn’t let up in her pestering of the group who’d been at the farm to tell her what had happened.

“This isn’t something we can talk about in public.” Yang repeated in exasperation as Nora continued to pout and moved up the group to pester Blake instead. There was a small tap on Weiss’ arm and she looked back to see Ruby signing to her as she kept a close eye on Ren and Nora.

_ ‘How do we tell them?’ _ Weiss simply shrugged, not wanting to think about. She wasn’t looking forward to this conversation at all, and was actually starting to think that maybe Ozpin was right to hide things, if nothing else than to avoid difficult conversation.

_ ‘I don’t know. How do you tell someone everything they knew about the world was a lie?’  _ Weiss deflected, despite the small twinge of guilt she felt at how Ruby’s face fell.

_ ‘Well, we’re not lying to them. We’ve all been lied to enough already.’  _ Weiss didn’t answer, so Ruby fell back to converse with Neo, an unhappy frown on her face. No one else attempted to talk to Weiss as they made their way down the last few streets, leaving her to stew in irritation and misery.

Terra had left before them for work, but the house wasn’t empty. Saphron was still off work to look after Adrian, and she raised an eyebrow at the dejected group as they walked in. “It didn’t go well, I take it?”

“If you define ‘not well’ as getting completely shut down and subjected to slurs, then yes.” Blake grumbled, as they flopped onto the sofa. “I suppose I should be thankful she didn’t use any of the really offensive ones.”

“Blake, that is way too low a standard to hold people to.” Yang told them wryly, dropping beside them on the sofa, and after a moment’s hesitation, reaching out to pull them into a quick side hug.

“I know, Yang.” Blake groaned, accepting the hug as the others took their own seats in the living room, except for Oscar, who hovered nervously on the sidelines. “But that bar is already too high for some people in Atlas. It’s only going to get worse for me and Weiss in Atlas, if we ever get there, that is.”

“We’ll find a way, we always do.” Nora chirped optimistically from her spot, squeezed in between Ren and Jaune, though even her boundless energy seemed to be dwindling in the face of yet more adversity. “We’re not gonna give up just yet, right?”

There was a collective flinch from Weiss, Blake, Yang and Neo at Nora’s slightly poor choice of words. She didn’t seem to have noticed though as she looked over at Oscar. “So what was it you needed to tell us?”

The young boy looked helplessly over at Ruby for guidance, who in turn looked to Saphron. “Would you mind letting us have the room? Private hunter business.” Saphron looked a little confused, but she nodded, picked up Adrian and took him upstairs. Once she was out of earshot, Oscar sighed, deflating under the collective weight of everyone left in the room watching him.

“Ozpin’s gone.” He told the three remaining members of Team JNPR.

“Wait, gone? What do you mean gone?” Jaune asked, his eyes narrowing at Oscar, who shuffled uncomfortably.

“He… He… It’s hard to explain. It’s like he locked himself away in some part of my mind I can’t get to. I don’t know how he did it.”

“That’s a good thing though, right?” Nora asked, cocking her head. “If he’s locked himself away, that means you’ll still get to be you.”

“That’s a thought for later, Nora.” Ren told his girlfriend as he frowned at Oscar. “Why did he do that, Oscar?” The boy didn’t respond, hanging his head instead, so Yang took up the narrative.

“He lied to us. Again.” She wasn’t able to muster up the energy to get angry over Ozpin’s deceptions this time. Yang just sounded exhausted. “He lied about the relic being unusable. It still had two questions left. So we asked it what he was hiding from us.”

“What did it say?” Jaune asked, cold anger lacing his tone as he glared over at Oscar, who shrank back even further.

“Lots of things, too many to tell you right now.” Yang sighed, shaking her head. “Honestly, I think we’re still processing a lot of it.”

“Then give us the short version.” Jaune snapped back, leaning forward and pulling away from Nora. None of the group spoke at first, then Ruby finally said what they were all thinking.

“Salem can’t be killed.”

“What.”

“Salem was cursed by the gods to live forever before they abandoned Remnant.” Weiss spat bitterly. “She and Ozpin are the last two remaining pieces of the world they created. We’re just the scavengers who came after.”

Slowly, Jaune got to his feet and paced over to one of the windows, resting his hands on the sill as he hung his head. “You’re joking, right? Please, tell me you’re joking.”

“I’m sorry, Jaune...” Osar mumbled, unable to look at any of them. There was another silence, then with a loud yell, Jaune lashed out and slammed his fist into the wall beside the window, leaving a large dent.

“Jaune!” Ruby was on her feet in an instant as Jaune spun around to face them.

“So everything we fought for, everyone we lost, it’s all been for nothing?!” He looked around wildly, a hint of desperation in his tone as though he was begging someone to tell him there was a point to it. It wouldn’t come from Weiss though. Nothing had much of a point anymore.

“We never said that.” Ruby said, distress very plain on her face.

“Well, it sure sounds like it!” Nora growled, sitting up as well as Ren leaned forward to rest his head in his hands.

“If Salem can’t be killed, then how do we win this?” He asked, staring listlessly at the floor. Nobody answered him.

“Wow, great fucking plan guys.” Jaune grumbled, starting to pace angrily.

“Look, we know this all sucks, but we aren’t the bad guys here.” Oscar insisted, drawing Jaune’s focus and his ire.

“Aren’t we?” He asked, stalking over to the farm boy and towering over him.

“Wh-What do you m-mean?” Oscar stammered out, shrinking beneath the far taller young man.

“Ozpin’s in your head.” Jaune tapped Oscar’s head, hard. “Did you already know about this?”

“No, he didn’t.” Ruby insisted, walking over to the confrontation as tension crackled through the room.

“How do we know that? How do we know he’s still Oscar? Or if Oscar ever existed in the first place?” Jaune growled, glancing back briefly at Ruby before refocusing on Oscar.

“Jaune, what are you saying?” Yang asked, half out of her seat and looking torn between supporting her sister and not wanting to intervene.

“All we’ve got is  _ his _ word about any of this bullshit. For all we know, all his talk about being two separate souls in one body is just more lies.” He glared down at the increasingly distressed Oscar. Weiss wouldn’t say it out loud, but Jaune did have a point. Could they really take anything Oscar or Ozpin had said at face value anymore? Then again, it wasn’t like it really mattered all that much. “What if we’ve just been talking to Ozpin all this time?”

“Jaune, you’re out of order.” Ruby reached out for Jaune, but he slapped her hand away.

“We can’t trust him. Even if Ozpin wasn’t lying, how long before he takes o-?” Jaune’s angry rant was cut short all of a sudden, and he staggered back to reveal Oscar with his fist still outstretched from punching Jaune and tears streaming down his face.

“What do you want me to say?! I haven’t lied about who I am. My name is Oscar Pine, I’m fourteen years old and I used to live and work on my aunt’s farm until a voice in my head told me I had to help save the world.”

“Oscar, I-.” Jaune started, but Oscar ignored him.

“You keep complaining about being lied to and manipulated, but you all still had more of a choice than I did!” Oscar was shouting now. “I have had no choice in any of this, and then I find out that sooner rather than later, I’m going to become a part of this… thing that is Ozpin, just another one of his hundreds of lives!” Oscar shook his head, swiping at his face to wipe away the tears.

“And on top of all that, you’re accusing me of not even being real, or just someone made up by Ozpin.” Oscar shook his head and walked away towards the front door. “I don’t have to put up with this shit.”

“Oscar, wait!” Ruby called out, but her pleas fell on deaf ears as the young boy left the house, slamming the door behind him. A tense silence fell over the room, but it was broken swiftly by Ruby rounding on Jaune. “What was that for?!”

“I just said what we were all thinking.” Jaune tried to defend himself, though he didn’t sound at all convinced.

“Look, things are hard enough as it is, we shouldn’t be fighting with each other as well.” Jaune didn’t reply, merely huffing and looking away, guilt plain on his face.

“Leave him alone!” Nora suddenly jumped in to defend Jaune, getting up and marching over to Ruby. “He’s right, if Ozpin refuses to trust us with anything, why should we trust him?”

“Because that’s not Ozpin, that’s Oscar!”

“Oh, please. After all of his lies, you seriously believe him?” Nora asked, getting right in Ruby’s face, despite being a few inches shorter. Weiss should probably intervene, stand up for her girlfriend, but she didn’t know how.

There was a sudden flash of movement and Nora was pulled away from Ruby by the crook of a parasol around her neck. Interposing herself between Nora and Ruby, Neo dropped Hush and started signing furiously.

_ ‘Leave her alone, she doesn’t need to explain herself to you.’  _ She glowered up at Nora, who set her jaw and folded her arms.

“Oh, so you believe him, do you? I would have thought an ex-criminal would be more suspicious.”

_ ‘Yes, I do, because I know what Oscar’s going through.’  _

“What? But how?” Ren cut in, confusion twisting his face, though not as much as the ones unable to follow the conversation. Neo hesitated, then continued signing, her hands trembling a little. 

_ ‘The Maiden powers didn’t just come with fun and flashy magic.’  _ She explained, hands tripping over each other a little.  _ ‘I got a part of Cinder’s soul too.’  _ Nora’s angry expression dropped quickly and was replaced with concern. Meanwhile, Weiss was surprised Neo was actually telling someone else about her condition without being prodded into it by her girlfriends.

“You mean…?” Nora asked quietly.

_ ‘It’s changing me, making me more like her. I don’t know how to stop it, or if it even can be stopped. So yeah, I know how Oscar feels.’  _ Neo’s hands fell to her side and she didn’t resist as Ruby pulled her into a hug from behind. Weiss felt like she should do the same, but she remained seated, watching it all play out.

“I’m sorry, Neo, that you’re going through this.” Nora mumbled guiltily, backing off fully and moving over to Jaune.

“I think we need some time alone, to process this.” Ren suggested, though he didn’t make a move to join his teammates.

“That’s all well and good, but what about Oscar?” Yang asked, looking at Jaune with reproach.

“I’ll go looking for him.” Ruby assured her sister as she released Neo. “Princess?”

“I think I’m going to stay here.” Weiss refused to meet Ruby’s eyes and instead curled in on herself.

“I’ll come, Ruby.” Blake offered, standing up and joining their leader. “We’ll make sure he’s okay.”

“Thanks, Blake. We’ll call when we find him.” Yang nodded in understanding as Ruby and Blake left the room and Weiss heard the front door close behind them. Silently, Ren got up from his seat and made his way upstairs with Nora and Jaune following shortly after.

“Well, that could have gone better.” Maria spoke up for the first time since they’d gotten back, apparently having been content to simply watch. “That young lad has quite a temper on him, doesn’t he?”

“He didn’t always.” Yang said quietly, contemplating her hand. “Beacon changed all of us, and now we know everything...”

“Yes, yes… I’d give you all my old therapist’s number, but she lives in Vale and is retired now.” Maria chuckled stumping over to the back door. “You kids could really do with some professional help.”

“There’s no helping me.” Weiss muttered darkly, to which Maria just snorted and hobbled outside, calling over her shoulder.

“Not with an attitude like that, there isn’t!” The door swung shut behind the old woman, leaving Weiss alone with Yang and Neo.

“She’s right, you know.” Yang broke the silence, looking up from her flexing hand. “We can’t help you if you won’t help yourself.”

“I don’t need help, there’s nothing to be done about it.”

_ ‘That doesn’t sound like the Weiss I know or fell in love with.’ _ Neo added as she joined the conversation.  _ ‘That Weiss never let anything get in the way of what she wanted.’ _

“Maybe I’m not that Weiss anymore. Maybe I’ll never be her again.” Weiss mumbled, drawing her wings in around herself as the other two exchanged a look. She wasn’t sure when it had started again, but that familiar buzzing had returned, making it hard to hear Yang’s next words.

“Weiss, the pity party really isn’t helping anyone, least of all yourself.” Yang said as she got up and walked over to Weiss, crouching down in front of the Faunus. “I’ll be honest, I’m struggling to understand what you’re going through right now, and I don’t think I ever will if all you do is shout at us and wallow in misery.”

Weiss didn’t answer. Instead she drew her wings in tighter so they obscured Yang from view, eliciting a deep sigh from Yang.

“Weiss, I didn’t want to have to do this, but turnabout’s fair play, and since you saw fit to manhandle me into talking to Blake...” Yang’s hands grasped Weiss’ wings and pulled them apart, revealing a rather ticked off Yang and an apprehensive Neo hovering behind her. “Now spill, properly.”

“I already told you all last night. Everything I believed in was a lie, all of it.” Weiss choked out, the buzzing screaming in her ears now. “I devoted myself to an absent god and a meaningless virtue.”

“I know that, what I want to know is why it’s affecting you so badly.” Yang said calmly, still holding Weiss’ wings. “Because a couple of months ago, I didn’t even know you were religious. You never even mentioned it back at Beacon.”

“I never talked about it because it’s the sort of thing that gets you accused of Grimm worship!”

“What?!” In her shock, Yang loosened her hold on Weiss, who took the opportunity to snatch her wings free and cower back on her seat again.

“People don’t understand my sect, they think that because we devoted ourselves to the God of Darkness as well as the God of Light that we worshipped the Grimm, as they were the creations of Darkness.” Weiss explained, the words tripping and tumbling out of her mouth as she tried to ignore the loud buzzing.

“And do you?”

“Of course not!” Weiss squawked in offence, her wings flaring. “We accepted them as a part of the world, and as adversity we must overcome as one of The God of Darkness’ tests for us. He gave us the power of choice so we could wield the other virtues against adversity.” Weiss paused and her wings drooped in distress. “At least, that’s what I used to believe…”

“It sounds like this means a lot more to you than you first told us.” Yang asked, rocking back on her heels now that she was no longer trying to pin Weiss down.

“I suppose so. I never really thought about it, it just  _ was _ .” Weiss frowned, trying to piece things together in her head but the buzzing was still there.

“Weiss, I want to help you, we all do. But this is something very personal to you, and there’s only so much we can do.” Yang sighed, standing up and stretching out her arms. “This needs to come from you first. You’ve got a choice, you can either stay like this or you can work things out and find a way to carry on.”

“Is there a way?” Weiss asked helplessly, only for Yang to shrug.

“You tell me. I’d love it if I could tell you there’s one easy answer that works for everything, but there isn’t.” Yang finished her stretches and started walking towards the front door. “I’m going to head out and see if I can help track down Oscar.”

With a small wave goodbye, Yang left the room and Weiss heard the door click shut. Weiss remained curled in on herself as Neo ceased her awkward hovering and approached Weiss carefully.

_ ‘Do you want me to stay?’  _ She asked tentatively but Weiss shook her head.

“I think I’d like to be alone to think these things through.” She told her girlfriend, who nodded in understanding.

_ ‘Okay, I’m going to go see if Saphron needs any help with Adrian. Just give me a call if you need me, Snowflake.’  _ With a small smile, Neo headed up the stairs, leaving Weiss alone with her thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That went well! Okay, no it didn't that went just about as badly as it could have done. At least Oscar stood up for himself though. Poor kid, he doesn't really have anyone he can turn to the way Weiss or anyone else does. Yang may have been a little harsh to Weiss, but it does mean she's getting closer to a point where she can start to heal. 
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being so good and helpful. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being just so cute!
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	18. Chapter 18

Oscar eventually returned on his own a couple of hours later. He didn’t say anything to anyone, but he did move the few things he’d brought with him into Qrow and Maria’s room. There was no more talk of what they were going to do to get to Atlas that day, and that night, Weiss slept alone again.

Breakfast next morning was a rather grim affair. Qrow was nowhere to be found and the only people talking were Blake and Yang, as they had a hushed conversation with each other. Weiss supposed she should feel happy that they were on the mend, but the dark cloud that hung over the rest of the group smothered it.

“Right, we need to decide what we’re going to do now.” Ruby finally announced once she’d finished her cornflakes that had been topped with several tablespoons worth of sugar. “If Cordovin won’t let us even talk to Ironwood, we need to find another way to Solitas and Atlas.”

“Do we have to talk about this now, Ruby?” Jaune asked. He seemed to be in a more stable mood than yesterday, but that wasn’t saying much.

“Yes, we do.” Ruby insisted, folding her arms. “I hate to say it, but we don’t have the luxury of time to fix our interpersonal issues.”

“You still think we’re going to go to Atlas then?” Nora asked in an unusually subdued tone. She was also being oddly clingy to both Jaune and Ren, nestling herself between the two.

“I don’t just think it, I know it.”

“Well, I’m not so sure.”

“Jaune, when we left Patch, we decided I was going to be the leader. So that’s what I’m doing, leading.” Ruby set her jaw stubbornly as she stared down the young man. “We didn’t let any of those Grimm stop us, and I am not going to let some short racist old lady stop us either.”

“Again, why would you date such a horrible person?” Yang asked Maria, who simply shrugged.

“It was a different time, and I was in a bad place, alright? Can we not examine my awful taste in women right now and get back to Miss Rose’s point instead?” She grumbled, shoving a piece of toast into her mouth.

“Right, so… Does anyone have any ideas?”

“I thought you were leading?” Blake snarked, the corners of their mouth twitching up in amusement.

“A good leader knows when to delegate and take advice from her subordinates.” Ruby replied smartly, flashing them a self-satisfied smile.

“Right…” Blake rolled their eyes fondly at the young leader. “Well, we don’t know enough to form much of a plan, so I suggest we do some observation first.”

“Good idea, Blake!” Ruby chirped happily before a small frown crossed her face. “Um, how do we do that, exactly?”

“Back in the Fang, if we were preparing for an operation, we’d normally send in some covert operatives, normally me or Ilia.” Shrugging, Blake looked around the assembled group. “It’s not like we could’ve sent in someone like Adam.”

“Did she just say Fang? As in The White Fang?” Maria spoke up, staring at Blake, who frowned back.

“Yes, I was a member of the White Fang. In fact, with the recent ousting of Adam Taurus as High leader, I’ve taken the position. Or at least I will once we’ve finished our mission” They explained, folding their arms. “Also, it’s ‘they’ not ‘she’, I’m non-binary.”

“You kids and your fancy labels. It would have been nice to know I was travelling with a terrorist though.”

“Hey, I was fighting for my people’s rights!” Blake snapped at the old woman, their ears folding back in anger.

“Oh I’m all for Faunus rights, but couldn’t you have fought for them with less, y’know, fighting and more rational talking?”

Weiss didn’t think it was possible for Blake’s ears to get any flatter against their head, before they closed their eyes and let out a deep calming sigh. “Calm down, Blake, it’s not your job to educate ignorant Humans.” They muttered to themself, though their hands fisted in their leggings.

“Remind me why you’re travelling with us again?” Yang glared at Maria whilst shuffling closer into Blake’s side.

“Because she can teach me about the silver eyes.” Ruby cut in quickly as Maria opened her mouth to snap back. “And we’re getting sidetracked again. Blake, do you think we can get people inside?”

“Unlikely, Atlas Military facilities are amongst the hardest places to get into on a good day. With the embargo and lockdown in place, it’ll probably be impossible.”

“So we’re screwed.” Jaune grumbled, gazing morosely into his mug of tea.

“I didn’t say that. There are other methods of surveilling, you know? I just need a day to have a look around the city.”

“I’ll come with you.” Yang volunteered, earning a small smile from Blake.

“Of course, I could do with the company.”

“Great, you two get on that and report back after dinner.” Ruby then rounded on the others, finger outstretched in what was probably supposed to be an authoritative stance. “We lost a fair amount of our equipment after the train crash, so we need to restock. We’re going to need ammunition, Dust and any other survival gear. Oh! And earpieces!”

“Earpieces?” Looking up from his tea, Jaune cocked his head curiously.

“So we can keep in contact without needing to keep a hand free for our scrolls, of course.” Ruby explained as though it were obvious. In fairness, it did make sense. “Can you three get on that?”

“Sure, I guess.” Jaune shrugged, looking to his teammates who didn’t disagree. “But we don’t have much money.”

“I’ve got enough.” Weiss pulled out her wallet and handed over a few Lien cards. “It’ll be cheaper if you get casings, primers, bullets and extra Dust rather than pre-made ammunition. I can put them together myself. And see if you can get Qrow to go with you, they may offer discounts to Hunters.”

“Great!” Ruby clapped her hands together excitedly, clearly pleased they were returning to some semblance of functionality. “Oscar do you-.” She paused at the look on the young boy’s face. “You know what? You do what you want for the day.” The boy grunted in acknowledgement before getting up and leaving the house.

_ ‘So what are you, Weiss and I doing?’  _ Neo asked, casting a nervous glance at Weiss.

“We will be helping out Saphron around the house!” Ruby grinned gleefully as though she’d announced the solution to all their problems.

“Seriously?” Yang raised an eyebrow at her sister, who nodded excitedly like she was some kind of bobblehead.

“Yep!” She chirped, only for Yang to continue to look unimpressed. “Okay, we’re probably going to be stuck here for a while, and they’ve already refused to take our money. The least we can do is help out a little. Clean up and stuff.”

“You have a point. “Yang conceded, shrugging as she got to her feet and offered Blake a hand. “We should probably get going, no point wasting any more time.” The cat Faunus graciously accepted the hand up and shot Maria a dirty look before departing with Yang.

“We should get going too. If we’re looking out for Qrow as well, who knows how long that could take.” Jaune drained his mug and set it down. He and his teammates all stood up, Nora still clinging to the other two and hobbling them a little as they too departed the house.

“Well, I don’t know about you three, but I’m far too old to be doing housework.” Maria got to her feet and hobbled over to the backdoor. “If anyone needs me, I’ll be taking in the sea air and working on my tan.” With that, she closed the door behind her and Weiss watched her walking over to a chair beneath the apple tree.

Sighing, Ruby looked back to her girlfriends. “Well, let’s see what needs doing.”

_ ‘I call dibs on helping with Adrian.’  _ Neo volunteered eagerly, already trotting towards the staircase.

“You okay with this, Weiss?” Ruby asked quietly when Weiss didn’t get up immediately.

“I’ll be fine.” Weiss reassured her with a surety that surprised even her. “Maybe doing something simple will help me process things.”

“Sure. If you want to talk, I’m here.” Ruby gave Weiss a small smile of encouragement before she started to clear up the breakfast things. Weiss stayed seated for a little while longer as Ruby cleaned up around her before getting up to follow Neo upstairs.

* * *

Weiss let herself get lost in the household chores she was assigned by Saphron, even though she wasn’t entirely sure how to do many of them, only having done the cooking when she was staying on Patch. Nevertheless, she tried her best with the tasks, even if she did accidentally get the vacuum cleaner stuck on one of the curtains.

Ruby had been assigned to work in the back garden, and so Weiss didn’t see much of her, but the leader seemed to be doing fine. From the few glimpses Weiss caught when she wasn’t fighting with the mop, Ruby seemed to be talking to Maria in between tasks.

Neo, on the other hand, had been assigned Adrian duty whilst Saphron took the opportunity to run some errands around the city. Weiss wasn’t entirely sure how Neo got past the communication barrier between herself and the infant, but the pastel girl seemed to be doing alright.

“How come you get on so well with Adrian?” Weiss asked Neo during one of her short breaks, watching her girlfriend play with Adrian.

_ ‘I like kids. I think they’re cute’  _ Neo shrugged and returned to miming flight with a toy Atlesian Manta ship.

“You knew how to change him without needing to be told.” Weiss pointed out, sipping at her drink and eyeing Neo carefully. Neo’s shoulders slumped and she left Adrian to play on his own, shuffling around to look up at Weiss.

_ ‘I… I had a sister, back in Atlas. I used to help look after her.’  _ Neo explained somewhat reluctantly, a frown crossing her face. ‘ _ I guess I never really forgot how to do it.’ _

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.” Neo shook her head, rejecting Weiss’ apology.

_ ‘It’s alright, you didn’t know.’  _ Neo cast a quick look back at Adrian to make sure he hadn’t gotten into any trouble before returning her attention to Weiss.  _ ‘Looking after her are actually some of the best memories I have of Atlas. I wish I could have kids of my own some day. Well, adopt some, I suppose.’ _

This gave Weiss pause, Neo had mentioned something along those lines back at the farm. She hadn’t given it much thought before, but was once again reminded that, armed with her new knowledge, was it really responsible of her to bring a child into this world?

“I see…” Weiss tried to keep her tone light but Neo seemed to pick up on her hesitance.

_ ‘It’s a big thing to think about, and I’m pretty sure you’re not in the right frame of mind to think about things like that.’  _ Neo signed quickly, starting to turn back to Adrian.  _ ‘But just so you know, so we can talk about it another time.’ _

Weiss didn’t know what to say as Neo returned to playing with Adrian, so she drained her glass and left the pair to their play whilst went back to her chores. As she collected the mop, Weiss wondered briefly whether she would ever be in a good state of mind to talk about the possibility of a family, before remembering Yang’s advice from the previous day. Shaking her head, Weiss started to mop the kitchen floor. It wasn’t really worth thinking about for now, she had mopping to do and dinner to prepare for later.

* * *

“Weiss, are you busy?” The Faunus paused in her drying up of the dinner things to look over at Blake, who was hovering nervously by the doorway.

“Well…” She raised the tea towel and plate by way of explanation.

“It’s important.”

“Can’t it wait until after I’m done?” Weiss asked, not wanting to leave the job half-done. Blake simply leaned back to call out to the living room.

“Yang, can you take over drying up stuff for Weiss? It’s for that thing we discussed.” They paused for a moment as Yang responded in the affirmative.

“Wait, what thing you discussed?” Weiss cocked her head as Yang slid past Blake into the room and took the things from Weiss.

“Blake can explain on the way, now shoo.” Yang flicked the tea towel at Weiss, who reluctantly followed Blake out of the kitchen and towards the front door, collecting their weapons along the way. After the farm, they were all still far too jumpy to leave the safety of the house unarmed. 

“We’ll be back in a bit!” They called over their shoulder before leading the way outside. Dusk had already fallen by now as Blake confidently walked down the street with Weiss in tow.

“So, what’s so important that you needed me to come with you right now?” Weiss asked as she drew her cloak tighter around her to keep out the evening chill.

“It technically wasn’t so important that it needed to be right now, but the sooner this gets resolved, the better.” Blake admitted, leading the way into an area of the city Weiss had yet to visit, yet something about it felt oddly familiar to her. “Yang and I were talking whilst we were investigating around town today. She told me about what happened between you and her yesterday.”

“Did she?”

“She’s worried about you, Weiss, we all are.” Blake paused and turned to face Weiss, ears twitching. “This whole thing with Jinn has been really getting to you.”

“I’m working on it.” Weiss half-lied. She really did want to move past this crippling doubt and crisis of faith, but it was just so hard to even start.

“Well, hopefully this will help.” Blake started walking again and Weiss had to jog to catch up with the taller Faunus’ long strides. “Back on Menagerie, you told me your sect wasn’t generally accepted in Atlas, but you never mentioned why.”

“It wasn’t really important at the time.” Weiss shrugged, trying to restrain her wings from fluttering uncomfortably under her cloak. “Where are you taking me, and why do I feel like I’ve been here before?”

“This is the Atlesian quarter. Most Atlesian expats living in Argus live here, and that’s reflected in the buildings and shops.” Blake gestured to some of the buildings as they walked past, and now that she knew what she was looking for, Weiss could see it too.

“That still doesn’t explain why you brought me here.”

“The Atlesians didn’t just bring themselves, they also brought their culture with them, including…” Blake came to a halt and gestured down a small side street. Weiss blinked in surprise. At the end of the street was a small well-kept garden and in the center of it stood a low building with a familiar sign etched on the front door.

“I haven’t been to a temple in years…” Weiss mumbled, slowly walking down the street towards the building. “I never even thought I’d see one outside of Solitas.”

“After Yang mentioned your specific beliefs, it was a lot easier to find this place. I was looking yesterday whilst trying to find Oscar.” Blake followed after Weiss and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I… I don’t really know what you’re going through, but I hoped that if I brought you here…”

“Thanks, Blake.” Weiss reached up for Blake’s hand, smiling softly. “You didn’t have to do this.”

“Sisters, remember?” The other Faunus shrugged, pulling Weiss into a loose hug.

“Do you mind waiting for me? I don’t know the way back to the house.”

“Take as long as you need, Weiss.” Blake released her from the hug and gave her a gentle shove towards the temple. “I’ll wait.” Flashing Blake another slightly more nervous smile, Weiss entered the garden. There wasn’t much to it, but it was far more than the temple she’d visited occasionally back on Atlas. The cold climate meant gardens were a luxury for the rich, and not for a marginalised religious sect.

She hesitated at the door, hand resting on the handle. It had been a long time. Taking a deep breath, Weiss pushed the door open and entered. There were no lights on, but that wasn’t a bother for Weiss, her eyes adjusting to the gloom quickly. The room was simple and looked like it had been put together on a shoestring budget. Rather than the standard wooden benches, there were rows of metal folding chairs, all facing the front, where a music stand stood as presumably an improvised lectern.

Out of all the mismatched items in the room, there were two that stood out. Behind the lectern, two pillars stood, plain and unadorned. A golden one on the left and an obsidian one on the right, as the faith eschewed direct depictions of the Brother Gods.

Slowly, Weiss walked to the centre of the room and stood gazing up at the two columns. She could remember the first time her mother had brought her to the temple, before the drinking got too bad. Back then, the smooth monoliths had somehow been comforting, representative of the gods’ unyielding power and their flawlessness. Now, that lack of features only reminded her of their implacable nature, how coldly they’d wiped out humanity.

If coming here was supposed to help her reconcile her previous faith with the reality she’d been confronted with, it wasn’t working particularly well. Perhaps if there was someone here she could talk to, but the place appeared to be deserted. It made sense, most worshippers would come at noon or at midnight, depending on which god they favoured.

Weiss briefly considered prostrating herself before the icon of her god and begging it to tell her what to do. It would probably be about as useful as anything else she’d tried. Groaning in frustration, Weiss collapsed onto one of the chairs and looked up at the pillars.

There was no sudden bolt of inspiration, no solution that came to her. Shifting uncomfortably on the seat, trying to find a comfortable position for her wings, Weiss’ wrist knocked against something. Glancing down, expecting to see some part of the chair but instead was surprised to see it was a dislodged Penny Dreadful.

Unclipping the weapon from her belt, Weiss idly examined it. It had been well over a year since she’d taken up Penny’s old weapon. To her, it actually felt more like her weapon now than Penny’s. Back at Beacon it had been a tool of convenience after she’d destroyed Myrtenaster, and it was a coincidence that she was able to carry this piece of Penny with her to preserve her memory.

Examining the weapon, Weiss was reminded of what Blake had asked her the day before, about whether the Gods had any influence on her decision to remember Penny by carrying her sword. She hadn’t had an answer back then, but now she was thinking about it, Blake hadn’t been exactly right.

It was true that she hadn’t taken up Penny Dreadful because the gods had willed it or anything, but she’d still been following their teachings in doing so. Teachings that they’d gone against in destroying the first iteration of Humanity without a second thought.

But… Did that invalidate those teachings? Weiss leaned back in the chair, finally finding a comfortable position, and gazed thoughtfully up at the monoliths. From her half-memories of the scriptures, she couldn’t really think of any reason why she shouldn’t continue to follow them. Her adherence to the virtue of Choice hadn’t led her astray yet. In fact, it had at times been her sole source of comfort.

Even if the Gods had proven themselves to be, dare she say it, fallible, the virtues they’d given to Humanity were still solid, something to aspire towards. And even if she wasn’t gifted with them like she’d believed, that didn’t mean she wasn’t in possession of them or couldn’t aspire towards them.

Weiss paused in her train of thought and dropped her eyes down to Penny Dreadful again. Had that just been the bolt of inspiration she’d been waiting for? It didn’t exactly feel like one, but at the same time, it did feel as if something had come loose.

The Gods may have turned their backs on Remnant, but that didn’t mean she had to turn her back on what they’d meant to her. Granted, it wasn’t much, but it was a place to start rebuilding her faith. Quietly, Weiss got to her feet and clipped Penny Dreadful back to her belt.

Just as she was about to leave the building, she glanced back at the gold and obsidian pillars gleaming in the half-light. Maybe someday, she’d find them comforting again. Quietly, she closed the door behind her and walked over to the waiting Blake.

“Did it help?” They asked, kicking off the wall and joining Weiss.

“Yes, it did.” Weiss smiled broadly for the first time in a while. “I think I’m going to be okay. Maybe not right now, but I will be. Thanks, Blake.”

“Always, Weiss.” The cat Faunus pulled Weiss into a side hug, which was reciprocated with a wing around their back as the two slowly made their way back to the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It seems Weiss has gained some measure of peace and been able to start reconciling her faith with her new knowledge. She's still got a little way to go, but it's a start.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being the best. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and supporting me in my creative endeavours.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	19. Chapter 19

“Is this really the best plan we can come up with?” Weiss asked incredulously, looking between Ruby and Jaune. “We’ve spent the last few days watching the Argus base and  _ this _ is the best plan the two of you could come up with?”

“Well, unless you want us to try stealing a Mistrali airship and have Neo exhaust herself disguising it, this is pretty much it.” Ruby shrugged, though she didn’t look too happy about it either.

“And even if we were to do that, they’d see the airship wasn’t one of their own with their scanners.” Jaune added, looking up briefly from the mess of papers they’d been scribbling their plans and observations upon.

“Even so, if something goes wrong and we get caught, that’s it.” Weiss pointed out, still not entirely convinced this was a good idea. “There’s no coming back from this.”

“Then we’ll just have to make sure nothing goes wrong.”

“Easier said than done.” Blake grunted, scanning over the notes as well. “I’d rather we observe them for far longer to properly determine the patrol timings.”

“We don’t have that luxury, unfortunately.” Jaune pulled out a piece of paper covered in Nora’s illegible scrawl. “Grimm attacks on the city have been on the rise. More and bigger Grimm have been spotted. It’s been small so far, but even so. Nora, these numbers are correct right?”

“Those aren’t even numbers, silly!” Leaning over, Nora pointed out various scribbles and translated them for Jaune. It was good to see Jaune, Nora and Ren all getting back to some semblance of normalcy, though she wasn’t entirely sure what spurred it. A couple days ago they’d come back from doing some more shopping and investigation a lot more chipper than they’d been after learning the truth about Salem.

“Nora, that is not how you spell ‘Manticore’. We’re hunters, we should at least know how to spell the names of our quarry.”

“We’re hunting and killing them, Jaune, not writing essays about them.” Nora protested as Jaune corrected her spelling on the paper.

“We literally had to write essays about them for Professor Port.” Ren deadpanned, sorting through some more of the papers that Nora had penned.

“Like he read them.” She scoffed, throwing an affectionate arm around Jaune and plucking her notes from his grip.

_ ‘I doubt he could read them if your handwriting is this bad.’  _ Neo gleefully needled her rival and received an obscene gesture in return.

“Can we focus, please?” Ruby clapped her hands to regain everyone’s attention. “We need to make sure everyone knows what their job is, we’ve got pretty much no room for error.”

“Ruby, relax, it’ll be fine.” Yang tried to reassure her sister, but Ruby wasn’t having it.

“You don’t know that, Yang! This isn’t something we can just go with the flow on!” Ruby nearly shouted, glaring at the blonde. “I’m the leader, it’s my responsibility to make sure all get through this okay. Uncle Qrow isn’t even here, even though I told him he needed to be.”

“That’s on him, not you. And you did deliberately cut him out of any important parts of the plan just in case this happened.” Weiss cut in quickly, sliding over to Ruby and wrapping her in a feathery hug, ignoring the raised eyebrow from Yang.

Admittedly, after her revelations at the temple, Weiss had maybe been overcompensating for her depressive episode with how liberal she was with giving comfort now. “You’re doing the best you can as our leader, none of us can fault you for that.”

Ruby made a noise of discontent and Weiss made a mental note to give Qrow a good talking-to later. At least Oscar had joined them, even if he hadn’t taken part in the surveillance and was remaining quiet throughout this discussion. He still seemed rather troubled by what Jaune had said, and even though Weiss and the others had tried to engage him, he’d been pretty much unresponsive.

“Perhaps if we go over the plan one more time before dinner.” Blake suggested, shooting Yang a look when the blonde frowned in distaste.

“Alright, fine. Just one more time, I’m starving.” She agreed, flopping back and looking up at Ruby expectantly.

“Alrighty, then!” Ruby pulled free of Weiss’ wings and hopped to her feet. “From the top. Tomorrow morning, Neo, Weiss and Ms Calavera will infiltrate the Argus Military Base and subdue the crew of the 05:20 patrol airship. We’re sending you three because…?”

“Neo is going because she can disguise herself and us as Atlas personnel and because she can pilot the ship, Ms Calavera knows Atlas Military jargon thanks to her ill-advised entanglement with Special Operative Cordovin.” Weiss answered promptly, familiar with Ruby’s style of plan recaps, ignoring Maria’s noise of irritation at how she described her relationship with Cordovin.

“And you’re joining them because…?”

_ ‘Because I can’t speak and it’ll be really obvious we’re not the people supposed to be on patrol if an old lady answers.’  _ Neo supplied helpfully, grinning smugly when Ruby praised her.

“Excellent! So, once the ship is in the air, you’re going to follow it’s usual flight path until it leaves the range of the Argus radar system. Then what happens?”

“Yang and I will be in position at the relay tower to disable the radar. From what we heard Terra say when we first got here, it’s a separate system, so we should be able to leave local communications intact.” Blake explained, pulling a crudely drawn map free from the pile and pointing out the location of the tower.

“We’re going because Blake’s sneaky and has experience sneaking around, and I need to be nearby to help guide her through the process of disabling the radar safely and without damaging anything else.” Yang added, not really paying attention to the briefing and instead practising her dexterity by trying to spin a pen with her right hand.

“I still don’t like that we’re keeping Terra out of the loop on this.” Grumbled Jaune, fiddling with his hair as he’d recently taken to doing whenever he wasn’t happy about something.

“I know we’re not supposed to be keeping secrets, but it’s safer for her, Saphron and Adrian this way.” Ruby explained again, sighing deeply. “If something does go wrong, if they have no knowledge of what we’re planning on doing, then theoretically they can’t get in any trouble.”

“It still feels pretty shitty. Saph and Terra have been good to us letting us stay here, and this is how we repay them?” Jaune continued to grumble, but he didn’t voice any more complaints.

“It’s not ideal, but we’ve gotta do what we’ve gotta do.” Ruby shrugged with a similar look of displeasure before she perked up again. “Right, so the airship should leave the radar’s range by 6:14 if our calculations are correct.”

“I triple-checked the numbers, Ruby, they’re sound.” Pulling out yet another sheet of paper from the stack, Ren waved it at the leader.

“Good, which means we want the radar down at 6:20, at which point Neo will double back with the airship and bring it to the rendezvous point, where the rest of us will be waiting.”

“The moment the radar is sabotaged, Blake and I are to take Bumblebee and get to the rendezvous point as quickly as possible for pick up.” Yang scowled as her pen went flying off again and she muttered under her breath about needing to recalibrate the fine motors.

“Will the ship be able to take all of us, our equipment  _ and _ the bike?” Weiss asked, trying to do the sums in her head, but failing.

“I think so, Mantas are pretty sturdy.” Ruby tapped her chin in thought. “But, if push comes to shove, we may have to leave the bike.”

“What?!” That got Yang’s attention and she bolted upright, staring at Ruby in shock. “No way am I just abandoning Bumblebee! I built her and she’s been with me all across Sanus and Anima.”

“It’s not like we can really ditch anything else.”

“We could leave behind Magnhild, it probably weighs about as much.”

Nora gasped in horror, clutching a hand to her heart. “You take that back!”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t be so cavalier about me leaving behind something I spent years working on and maintaining.” Yang huffed, folding her arms resolutely, daring anyone else to suggest she leave behind her precious vehicle.

“We’ll do our best, Yang, but I can’t make any promises.” Ruby told her sister in her best placating tone. “So, we all get picked up at the rendezvous point and then we get the hell out of Argus before the radar gets fixed or anyone notices the airship isn’t where it’s supposed to be. Any questions?”

Ruby looked expectantly around the group, and Oscar raised a hand. “What are you planning on doing when you get to Atlas?” It didn’t escape Weiss’ notice how he didn’t seem to be including himself in that, but now wasn’t the time to bring that up.

“I… don’t actually know.” Ruby admitted, scratching awkwardly at the back of her head. “I kinda figured with an Atlesian ship, we’d be able to bluff our way into Atlas and we’d work out how to get to Ironwood from there.”

“After all this meticulous planning you’ve done for this heist, that doesn’t sound like a particularly well thought out plan.” Scowling at Ren’s admittedly correct observation, Ruby folded her arms in a huff.

“Well, it’s the best we can really do for now.” Ren conceded the point and started to clear up and organize all their papers.

“Well, if that’s it, can we order dinner now?” Yang asked, rubbing at her belly and looking up at Ruby hopefully.

“Um, actually...” Jaune raised a hand after handing Ren the papers he’d claimed. “There was something I, uh, we wanted to show you.”

“Really, you wanna do that now?” Nora asked incredulously, unwrapping herself from Jaune and giving him an indecipherable look.

“It’s our last day here, when else are we gonna get the chance?”

“I thought we were keeping that private, just between the three of us.” Ren intoned, giving Jaune a similar look.

“I want to show them, I think they’d appreciate it.”

“I’d appreciate getting food.” Yang interrupted irritably.

“It won’t take too long, I promise, we can order takeout on the way back.” Jaune reassured her, but Yang’s frown didn’t abate. “We can try that Vacuoan place you mentioned yesterday.”

“Alright, fine.” Yang groaned, getting to her feet. “But you’d better not complain it’s too spicy for your poor Valean tongue.”

“I won’t and I promise, this will be worth your time.” Getting to his feet as well, Jaune pulled Nora up after him and led her to the door. “Ren?” The other young man finished tidying up the papers and stuffed them out of sight in one of their bags before joining his teammates and taking Jaune’s other hand.

Out of the corner of her eye, Weiss noticed Yang raise an eyebrow at this, but she didn’t say anything. Instead she looked over at Oscar who was the only one not to have moved. “You coming, Oscar?”

“I… I think I’ll sit this one out.” Oscar mumbled into his knees, the young boy having curled in on himself.

“Oscar, I’d really appreciate it if you came with us.” Jaune came to a halt before leaving the room and looked back. “Please?”

Oscar didn’t answer, but after several long seconds, he uncurled from his seat and got up. Smiling encouragingly at the boy, Jaune and his teammates led the way out of the house, everyone else in tow.

“Is this really necessary?” Maria grumbled, pulling her shawl closer around herself. “It’s far too cold out here.”

“You know, you don’t actually have to come with us, just our friends.” Nora sniped somewhat irritably at the old woman. “Seriously, is all you do complain?”

“Sometimes I make snide comments.” Maria fired back, already starting to turn back to the house. “You kids have fun, and whatever you order for me, make sure it’s vegetarian.”

“It’s alright.” Jaune reassured the remainder of the group as Maria stumped away back to the house. “Nora could have been nicer, but Ms Calavera probably wouldn’t have gotten much from this.”

“You’re all being very enigmatic about whatever it is you’re showing us.” Frowning, Blake huddled into Yang’s side, shivering in the cold until Yang wrapped an arm around them. Weiss had to resist the temptation to smile at the renewed closeness between the two. Ruby had no such restraint, however, and beamed gleefully at the pair, latching onto Weiss’ arm and whispering in her ear.

“Those two are awfully cuddly aren’t they?” Weiss rolled her eyes affectionately and wrapped a wing around Ruby, despite the chill it brought her.

“I think Yang finally sharing about her abandonment issues really helped them.” Weiss mumbled quietly to Ruby, who turned her smile on Weiss.

“Speaking of things helping people, you’re doing a lot better now than before.” She chirped as she nuzzled into the crook of Weiss’ neck.

“I feel a lot better.” Weiss rested her head on Ruby’s and enjoyed the feeling of her coarse hair against her cheek. “I’m sorry I haven’t been the best girlfriend lately.”

Feeling Ruby shift against her, Weiss turned to look at her, only to receive a light flick on the nose. “Don’t be silly, you’ve got nothing to be sorry about.”

“Was that strictly necessary?” Weiss grumbled, rubbing at her nose in mock hurt.

“You were doing that thing again where you start blaming yourself for things that aren’t your fault.” Ruby shrugged with an impish grin. “Also I’m gonna nip it in the bud before you start thinking about it. It’s not a bad thing that it was Blake who was able to help you and not me or Neo.”

“I wasn’t going to think that.” Weiss denied, even though the thought had crossed her mind once or twice.

“And you’d better not. We can’t be everything for each other, and it’s okay to get support from our other friends. It’s what we’re all friends for, after all.” Ruby leaned in a fraction to press a gentle kiss to Weiss’ cheek before returning her attention to wherever they were being led. “Any idea where Jaune’s taking us?”

Weiss shook her head, they were heading in a different direction to any of the ones Weiss had previously been in whilst walking around the city. Argus was large enough that she’d certainly need more than a couple of days to fully explore it.

“Just in here.” Jaune called back to the others as he and his teammates crossed the road and entered what looked like a small park. The view into the park was obscured by columns wrapped in vine and other climbing plants, forming a wall of greenery that prevented them from looking in. They only had to walk a little way into the park and to a cross in the path when Ruby gasped and looked to their right.

“Pyrrha.”

Weiss jolted in shock and looked too, freezing in place when she saw it. A ring of lights set into the stonework of the path encircled and illuminated a tall statue of a young woman, almost twice as tall as she’d been in life. Her head bowed and her eyes closed, she looked almost peaceful.

“We found it a couple of days ago.” Jaune spoke quietly, detaching from Ren and Nora and approaching the statue’s plinth. This was her city, where she trained. Even after everyone saw what happened at Amity, they still believed in her enough to make this.”

Slowly, the rest of them stepped forwards to join Jaune at the feet of their departed friend. Now they were closer, Weiss noticed a plaque set in front of it, but she couldn’t read it as tears started to fill her eyes. There was a small sniffle from beside her and she felt Ruby shift against her side.

“I thought… I thought you’d want to see this. You were Pyrrha’s friends too.” Jaune continued, rummaging around in a small bag he’d brought with him and pulling out something Weiss hadn’t seen in over a year.

“You carried that with you all this way?” Weiss asked as Jaune laid the circlet reverently at the statue’s feet.

“After you brought it back to us, I wasn’t going to just leave it at my parents farm.” Jaune explained, standing back up and looking back at Weiss. “I didn’t know this was here, but it feels right to leave it.”

“And her shield?”

“We used most of it to upgrade my stuff.” He tapped his armour for emphasis. “But there was just enough left over that we made these a couple of days ago.” He reached into his hoodie and pulled out a sliver of bronze metal on a cord around his neck. “So we could always have a piece of her with us.”

“She was the best of us, and we all loved her.” Nora added, showing off her own necklace. “And these will remind us what Pyrrha knew. That there isn’t really a choice to make. We’re hunters, we have to see this through, and we can’t give up, not now and not ever.” Just as Nora was tucking her necklace back under her collar, there was a light tap on Weiss’ shoulder.

“Weiss, Neo’s gone.” Ruby hissed, and sure enough, when Weiss looked around quickly, she saw no sign of their pastel girlfriend. The rest of the group was still preoccupied with the statue and sharing some of their memories of Pyrrha with Oscar.

“We’ll find her.” Weiss reassured Ruby, taking her by the hand and leading her away from the group. Thankfully, they didn’t have to look very far. They found Neo sitting on one of the benches just outside of the park, head hung low to hide the pink fire emanating from her eyes as she directed a small flame to dance between her fingers.

“Neo? What’s wrong?” Weiss sat beside Neo whilst Ruby took the other side and the pastel girl snuffed out the flame in her hand, the fire in her eyes burning out too.

_ ‘It’s nothing, you should be back with the rest of them. This isn’t about me.’  _ She insisted, trying to slip out from between her girlfriends, but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

“Neo, please.” Ruby implored, her eyes wide and sad. Reluctantly, Neo sat back down on the bench.

_ ‘She was supposed to be the Maiden, not me.’  _ Neo said after a little while, signs slow and hesitant.  _ ‘I don’t deserve it.’  _

“Neo-.” Weiss tried to interrupt, but Neo kept going, her hand accelerating.

_ ‘I’m not perfect like her, I just got lucky. I wouldn’t have beaten Cinder in a fair fight. In fact, she nearly killed me in one.’  _ Tears were sparkling in Neo’s eyes now.  _ ‘Your friend should be the one who survived the Fall, not me. She’s the worthy one, not me.’ _

“Y-You don’t really mean that, do you?” Tears were now filling Ruby’s eyes too as she gazed sorrowfully at her girlfriend who simply shrugged.

_ ‘I know I’m not good enough. I never met Pyrrha, but I’ve neer heard anyone say a bad word about her. The undefeatable Champion of Mistral, perfect in every way and tall to boot.’ _

“You know, she’d hate being thought of like that.” Weiss commented, doing her best to hold herself together with this revelation from Neo. “She hated being put up on pedestals like that. She was Human, like the rest of us-.” She paused for a moment. “Like you, I mean. She wasn’t perfect by any means.”

Ruby nodded in agreement, swiping a sleeve over her eyes. “Do you have any idea how long it took for her to admit even to any of us that she had feelings for Jaune?”

“She was anxious and worried about disappointing people, all these expectations that were placed upon her. The woman adored bacon and would rather eat that than eat whatever healthy stuff Ren made.” Neo continued to look unconvinced so Ruby took over again.

“Neo, Pyrrha wasn’t perfect, but she didn’t need to be, and neither do you. Worthiness doesn’t come into this anyway, and even if it did, you are plenty worthy of being the Maiden.” The brunette insisted as she pulled Neo into a tight hug. “And I know it’s a horrible thing to say, but if I was given a choice between you and Pyrrha, I’d choose you every time. We both would.”

Neo sniffed loudly, and Weiss quickly produced a handkerchief before she could wipe her nose on her sleeve. “We’re with you, Süße, we love you.”

_ ‘I love you too.’  _ Neo’s signs were hampered somewhat by the handkerchief, but both of her girlfriends were intimately familiar with the gesture.

“You feeling better?”

_ ‘A little.’ _

“We should get back to the others.” Weiss suggested, taking back her handkerchief and tucking it away. “Do you feel up to it?” Neo nodded and stood up, linking her hands with Weiss and Ruby’s, and allowed them to lead her back into the park to rejoin the others. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Plans are made and they all finally commit to Neo's motto of 'Be gay, do crimes'. I hope I did justice to this version of the park scene. I am not all that kind to Neo sometimes, she is a small insecure young woman and I love her. We're now fast approaching the end of V6 and with it soon we shall reach my next most anticipated part, I have plans. 
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being awesome. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being super duper cute and adorable.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	20. Chapter 20

“Okay, let’s do this!” It was far too early in the morning, even for Weiss, as the group assembled outside Saphron and Terra’s house ready to execute their daring plan. Last night, whilst Ruby and Weiss had been with Neo, they’d apparently missed a great deal, including Oscar being inspired by the statue of Pyrrha to carry on, and perhaps more surprisingly, Jaune admitting to dating Nora and Ren. Of course, he’d put it as clumsily as he possibly could, referring to it as ‘doing a Weiss-Ruby-Neo’, but the meaning was clear. Apparently he too had been inspired by the memorial into concluding that Pyrrha wouldn’t have wanted him to stay hung up on her for the rest of his life.

With Oscar now onboard with at least coming with them to Atlas, that had just left one dissenter in the form of Qrow, who they’d found slumped in a drunken stupor against the front door as they came back to the house bearing their Vacuoan takeout.

It had taken them far too long to sober him up, and Weiss had taken personal responsibility for disposing of the remaining alcohol in his hip flask. For the briefest of moments, as she stood over the sink, the smell of the alcohol had called out to her. Supporting Neo was rather stressful, as was the thought of what they were going to do the next morning.

Just a swig, to take the edge off.

Qrow didn’t get his flask back. It was found empty in the sink with several punctures, dents and even a couple of scorch marks, which Weiss claimed to have no knowledge of and the others let slide. Qrow had been very much against the plan when they’d filled him in on it, but he’d eventually relented on the grounds that he wasn’t about to let his nieces go off and do something that stupid without adult supervision.

“Everyone clear on their roles? Got your earpieces?” Ruby asked and they all nodded. Looking around the assembled soon-to-be criminals, Weiss noticed that Blake seemed oddly nervous for some reason. “Good. We’ll get through this, trust me.”

As the group prepared to split up and Neo rushed over to Ruby to give her a hug, Weiss sidled over to Blake. “Are you okay? You seem kind of jumpy.”

“I’m fine…” They sounded decidedly not fine, and Weiss fixed them with a flat stare. “I’m probably just being paranoid, but ever since we got to the city, I’ve just had this feeling we’re being watched.”

“Why didn’t you say something sooner?”

“I figured it was just the after-effects of the Apathy. It probably is. Just… be careful, okay?” Blake implored and Weiss just sighed deeply.

“I will. I’ll probably be keeping those two out of trouble anyway.” Weiss jerked a thumb over her shoulder at Neo and Maria who were standing off to the side waiting for her. “You be careful too.”

“I’ve been breaking into Atlas facilities most of my life, I’ll be fine.” Blake reassured her, pulling the white-haired Faunus into a quick hug. “You should get going.”

Nodding, Weiss stepped back and joined Neo and Maria, waving off the others before they started down towards the coast and the Argus base.

“Well, I guess if there was any hope of reconciling with Caroline, this will definitely sink it.” Maria commented as they walked through the dark early morning.

“Did you even want to?” Weiss asked dryly and Maria shrugged.

“Not really, but I did bring a load of cashews with me because screw the dumb regulations.” She announced proudly and Weiss just groaned.

“We’re going to get caught, I can feel it.” She muttered darkly as they made it to the coastline and approached the bridge leading out. “Okay, Neo, you’re up.” The short girl nodded and closed her eyes briefly.

_ ‘Okay, no one should be able to see us.’  _ She informed the other two and led the way onto the bridge.  _ ‘Be quiet though.’  _ Weiss nodded and silently followed the pastel girl to the small airfield that branched off from the bridge.

Now came one of the trickier parts of the plan. They had to wait for the morning patrol to emerge into the airfield and intercept them without anyone noticing. Soon enough, Weiss noticed the gates of the facility opening and a couple of soldiers marched out, the gate shutting behind them.

Carefully, Weiss clicked Lilie around to Ice Dust. They only had one shot at this, and despite Neo’s cavalier suggestion that it would be a lot easier if they didn’t have to leave the soldiers alive, Ruby had instructed them to incapacitate only.

Weiss levelled her weapon at the approaching soldiers and she heard the faint shifting of Neo’s hands on the handle of Hush. The bridge was so open that they had to wait until the soldiers were almost right next to them. The moment the two stepped into the shadows of the airfield’s walls, Weiss struck.

With a pulse of aura, she formed glyphs at the feet of the soldiers and froze them in place. Their momentary confusion at suddenly being stuck in place was all Neo needed to dart up to them and slam their heads together hard.

The soldiers slumped down, unconscious, with Neo already rifling through their pockets whilst Weiss continued to pulse her aura through Lilie to form more makeshift bindings out of ice before detaching the two from the ground.

Neo popped up after a couple of moments, laden with keycards and scrolls, and skipped off to open the gate. Weiss did briefly wonder why there were no other guards on the airfield, but given Cordovin’s arrogance and belief in the superiority of Atlas, it maybe shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise.

Maria grumbled quietly under her breath as she helped Weiss haul the two unconscious soldiers into the airfield and stowed them out of sight. With any luck, they wouldn’t be discovered for a good long time. Neo, meanwhile, trotted over to one of the Mantas and opened it up, appearing a moment later in the cockpit, setting things up.

With the soldiers hidden, Weiss and Maria hurried over to the airship, Weiss tapping at her earpiece to activate it. “Ruby, we’re just about to take off. Everything is going to plan so far.”

“Good, see you soon. Ruby out.” Ruby’s voice crackled back as Weiss climbed aboard and helped Maria up.

“Let’s go.” She instructed Neo, who nodded and pulled back on the controls. With a lurch, the airship rose into the air and zoomed off on the patrol route. The sun was only just beginning to peek over the horizon as Maria took the copilot’s seat and Weiss stood between them, waiting anxiously in case of any communications.

The route took them fairly close along the eastern coastline before looping out across the water and then back to the base. Weiss kept a careful eye on the time, waiting until they were scheduled to leave radar range, but was interrupted by a beep from her communicator.

“Uh, girls, just letting you know, we’ve got a bit of a problem here.” Weiss could hear what sounded like growling and shots being fired in the background.

“Ruby, what’s going on?”

“Well, we’re kinda under attack from Grimm. Quite a lot of Grimm, actually. I think it’s the relic again.” Weiss could definitely hear the sound of Nora swearing now as she was presumably crushing Grimm with her hammer.

“Ruby, are you okay?” Fear and anxiety gripped at Weiss’ heart as Ruby went silent for a moment and all she could hear was the familiar retort of Crescent Rose being fired.

“We’ll be fine, stick to the plan. Jaune! Look out!” There was a loud shout of pain and a thump in the background and Ruby’s line went dead.

“Blake, Yang, change of plans, take the radar down now.”

“But Ruby said-.” The cat Faunus protested, but Weiss cut them off.

“We don’t have time to circle around to get to them, they need our help.” Weiss insisted, already trying to work out in her head the fastest way to the rendezvous point.

“What if you’re seen?”

“We’ll just have to risk it.” Weiss asserted stubbornly. “Yang, be ready to get to the pick up point as soon as you and Blake are finished.”

“I don’t like this, Weiss.” The blonde warned, and Weiss growled quietly.

“Neither do I, but we have to adapt. Get that radar offline now! Weiss out.” The white-haired Faunus dropped her hand from her ear and looked to Neo, ignoring the sound of Yang and Blake calling for her in her ear. “Get us to the rendezvous point as quickly as you can.”

Neo gave her a questioning look as Maria piped up. “What’s happening? I only heard half of that conversation.”

“Ruby and her group are in trouble. Grimm, and a lot of them, apparently. That stupid relic attracted them.” Weiss explained hurriedly, her wings flapping anxiously. “Blake and Yang are disabling the tower right now. It should be down by the time we get back into its range.”

“If you say so...” Maria didn’t sound too sure, but Neo had already started turning the airship around the moment Weiss mentioned Ruby was in trouble. Weiss’ tight grip on the back of the pilot seat was starting to hurt but she didn’t care, she was too busy worrying about Ruby and the others. She knew the maxim about plans never surviving first contact, but this took the biscuit. Surely things couldn’t get much worse.

“We’re going to be entering back into their radar range any moment now.” Maria warned, peering out through the cockpit. “Better hope your cat friend has that radar disabled.”

“They have a name you know.” Weiss snapped, not caring about politeness right now. As they approached the city, Weiss’ earpiece crackled into life again.

“Weiss, we’ve got a problem.” Yang sounded out of breath and panicked. “I was just walking Blake through disabling the system when they suddenly cut off. They’re not answering and I’m not seeing their scroll signal either.” This was bad, this was very very bad. “I’m going in after them, Yang out.”

“Yang! Do you know if they disabled the radar or not?” Weiss asked, but the question was answered by the ship’s own radio.

“Manta 5-1, this is Argus Base, you have deviated from your patrol route, what’s your status, over.”

“Shit.” Maria said rather succinctly, and Weiss was inclined to agree. “Here, take this.” She thrust the receiver into Weiss’ hands. “Repeat after me: Argus Base, this is Manta 5-1, feel free to gaff off. Thought we were going to scrub due to FOD, but we’re back up and green across the board, over.”

Trying to keep her voice steady, Weiss repeated what Maria had told her and waited with bated breath for the response. “Manta 5-1, return to base immediately, or you will be treated as hostile, over.”

“Why didn’t that work?!” Weiss demanded of Maria who shrugged in confusion. All three jumped when the voice came back over the radio.

“Nobody in the Atlas Military has talked like that in over a decade.” Looking down, Weiss noticed she’d accidentally continued to hold down the transmit button, and swore loudly.

“Hmmph, who would’ve guessed they’d have changed their jargon since Cordy and I broke up?” Maria shrugged nonchalantly whilst Neo kept the airship on course, her head swivelling nervously as Weiss’ already fragile temper boiled over and she let loose with a torrent of foul language, which was interrupted by a new voice on the radio.

“Maria! What are you doing on one of my airships? And who is the incredibly uncouth woman with you?” Great, now they had Cordovin’s attention, and before Weiss could stop her, Maria snatched the receiver out of Weiss’ hands with a gleeful grin.

“Hello, Cordy! How’s your morning going?” Weiss wasn’t sure how to describe the noise that Cordovin made, but it most definitely was not a happy noise.

“Maria! If you think you can undermine my authority with your asinine quips and jokes, you’ve got another thing coming! Return my airship at once or I shall be forced to make an example of you! I will show you the might of Atlas!” Cordovin declared whilst Maria made faces and Weiss wondered why they hadn’t been shot out of the sky yet.

“Atlas this, Atlas that... It’s always Atlas with you, isn’t it, Cordy?” Maria smirked and Weiss had a bad feeling about what she was going to say next. “You love it so much I’m surprised you didn’t call me Atlas when we were in bed together.”

“Give me that!” Weiss made a grab for the receiver as Cordovin’s inarticulate screeches of rage filled the airship, but Maria managed to keep it away from her.

“Never!” The old woman cackled gleefully, further infuriating Weiss.

“This is serious, Ms Calavera!” Weiss finally managed to grab the receiver from Maria and slammed it back into its cradle. She was about to continue lambasting Maria as they approached Argus Base when her earpiece beeped at her.

“Um, Weiss, we might actually need help here.” Ruby’s voice was tired and Weiss could still hear the sounds of fighting in the background.

“Ruby, bad news.” Weiss hurriedly cut off her girlfriend. “We’re already on our way over, but something’s happened to Blake and they aren’t picking up. Yang’s gone after them but the radar is still up and Cordovin spotted us, and  _ someone _ is being incredibly unhelpful.” She glared meaningfully at an unapologetic Maria.I 

There was a quiet groan on Ruby’s end. “Has Cordovin done anything yet?”

“No, but I imagine she’ll be scrambling airships to shoot us down any moment now.” There was a tap on Weiss shoulder and she looked down at Maria, whose impish glee had faded.

“Ummm, I don’t think Cordy’s sending airships, kiddo.” Looking out of the cockpit and down at the base, Weiss saw with mounting horror the entire side of the island sliding open to reveal an absolutely gigantic mech. Weiss had thought the Wyvern back at Beacon was big, but this was easily bigger and bulkier than the Grimm had been.

“Oh fuck.” Just when Weiss had thought things couldn’t get any worse than they already had.

“Clearly, the people have forgotten about the might of Atlas and how it protects them all!” Cordovin’s voice boomed from the giant machine as it stomped forward off its plinth in the mountain and into the water, the waves barely lapping at its ankles.

“Is Cordovin piloting that thing?!” Weiss shrieked as she stared agog at the robot and wondered why there even was such a massive thing there in the first place.

“Piloting what thing, Weiss?” Ruby asked, worry clear in her voice as Weiss had forgotten to stop transmitting.

“Cordovin’s chasing us in a giant robot!” Weiss informed the leader as Maria called out in alarm.

“Look out!” Neo glanced down at the mech and jerked the controls hard, sending Weiss sliding and slamming into the side of the airship as a burst of electricity narrowly missed them thanks to Neo’s evasive manoeuvres. Weiss was fairly certain if Neo’s hands weren’t busy clutching the control stick, she’d be swearing up a storm.

“Weiss, get back here as fast as you can. I need you and Neo on the ground to help take down the Grimm and Cordovin.” Weiss didn’t answer immediately, she was too busy gaping in shock at what Ruby had just said. She was knocked out of her stupor by another wild turn from Neo that sent her crashing into the other side of the ship.

“Ruby, you’re joking, right?!”

“We’ve fought big robots before!” Ruby insisted whilst Nora hollered a battlecry in the background.

“This is more than just a ‘big robot’!” Stumbling back into the middle of the cockpit, Weiss looked out as Neo wrestled with the controls, trying to keep them on course. She could see out on the cliffs not too far from the city, a fairly large flock of Manticores all swarming around the place they were supposed to meet Ruby and the others. “Neo, just keep going.”

“Get back here, you ingrates!” Cordovin’s voice echoed out from the robot as it pursued them, wading through the ocean with ease. Weiss leaned over Maria to look back at the mech. It didn’t seem to be able to catch up with them, but it was capable of keeping pace.

“Ruby, we’ll be there in less than a minute, hold on!” Weiss told her girlfriend as the mech raised its cannon arm and electricity crackled at its muzzle. “Dive!” Neo did as instructed and the blast only just clipped one of their wings, sending a charge through the hull and sent their instruments haywire for a few seconds.

“Enough of this!” That did not sound good at all. Looking back again, Weiss saw the giant assembly on the cannon arm rotate and a large battery of missiles popped out.

“Incoming!” She called over to Neo as a missile launched out. The pastel girl wrenched at the controls, sending them careening away, but the missile continued to follow them and was gaining.

“That’s not good!” Maria chipped in helpfully as Neo tried to coax more speed out of the airship. They were getting very close to the Grimm flock and Weiss could now make out their comrades holding their own against the dark creatures. “It’s getting closer! Brace!”

Weiss grabbed onto the seats in preparation for the impact. The explosion shook the airship, but it didn’t seem to have done any damage. Confused, Weiss looked out and saw Ruby had broken away from the group and was lowering Crescent Rose. Weiss could feel the sheer rage in her glare from this distance, and it was all directed at the pursuing mech.

“So be it!” Cordovin cried out, and as Neo brought the airship around to land by the group of fighters, Weiss watched in horror as Cordovin aimed her giant cannon at Ruby and the others.

“Get me down there, now!” Neo sent the airship into a steep dive and Weiss ran to the back, twisting Lilie’s chambers around. They were still several metres above the ground, but Weiss barely noticed as she flung the side door open and leaped out, her wings flaring out instinctively to slow her descent.

The impact jarred her bones as she landed hard amongst her group and the Grimm. “Get behind me!” She called out to the group just before the cannon fired. Weiss didn’t have time to check whether or not they’d listened to her and she slammed her fist into the ground, channelling her aura through the Rock Dust.

The ground shook and exploded upwards forming a wall between her and the mech. Several Grimm were on the other side and were caught in the blast of ice Cordovin had fired at them.

“That was way too close!” Oscar called out as he wrestled with a Manticore, battering it around the head with his cane. Meanwhile, the airship finished its dive and hovered in the middle of the group for them to form up and defend it.

“Weiss, are you okay?” Ruby called out, spinning Crescent Rose in devastating arcs to keep the Grimm at bay.

“I’m fine. What’s the plan?”

“We need to keep the airship safe whilst we deal with these Grimm and Cordovin.”

“That thing looks like it only has the one weapon. If we split up and give her too many targets, that’ll help.” Jaune shouted, his armour looking more than a little scratched from combat.

“Alright, Can anyone other than Neo pilot?” Ruby asked the group at large. “I want the Maiden powers out here.”

“I can do it.” Maria called out, already fiddling with some of the controls of the airship. “I may not be as good as the shorty, but I’ll keep it safe.”

“Right. Oscar, go with her. You don’t exactly have any ranged weapons so…” Ruby ordered the boy, who nodded.

“I’ll keep an eye out for any weaknesses and coordinate from above.” He broke off from one of the Grimm to jump aboard the airship, switching places with Neo, who leaped forth, Cacophony already out and firing.

“You needed me on the ground, Ruby?” Weiss asked, drawing Penny Dreadful to swipe at some Grimm. She did not like the rather sheepish look on Ruby’s face.

“Not exactly...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big fight time! And because I am a cruel goddess, of course I had to make things just that little bit harder for them. Of course we all know the real fight here isn't between the team and the mech. Nope, it's the return of Cordovin vs Maria! Fun times!
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being the best at it. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being just so cute.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	21. Chapter 21

This had to be one of Ruby’s crazier ideas and Weiss did not like it at all. She did sometimes wonder if this was the reason she hadn’t been made into a team leader, that she lacked the recklessness required to formulate these ridiculous plans.

As the mist from the Ice Dust began to settle, Ruby called out to the group. “You all ready?” There were various calls of assent with varying levels of confidence. “Operation Crazy Enough to Work, go!”

Rolling her eyes at the abysmal name, Weiss and the others broke their formation around the airship, which took off in turn. She and Neo ran off in the opposite direction to Jaune and his team whilst Ruby being Ruby flew straight up.

Weiss didn’t really have the time to keep an eye on the more foolhardy of her girlfriends as she and Neo spun and slashed their way through the Grimm horde that surrounded them in a bid to get to the cliff’s edge.

“Neo, catch!” Weiss twirled Penny Dreadful to its pistol form and tossed it over to Neo, receiving Hush in return. Wielding the parasol reminded Weiss of Myrtenaster and she felt a twinge of nostalgia for her old blade as she skated between the Grimm. Her progress towards the edge of the cliff was aided by Neo raining fire upon the Manticores, a manic grin on her face as she danced across the battlefield.

With one final push, Weiss broke through the Grimm and found herself teetering on the edge of the cliff. “Neo!” With another call to her girlfriend, Weiss flipped Hush around and hurled it like a javelin toward Neo, who in turn threw Weiss’ own weapon back to her.

Unfortunately, Neo misjudged the distance and the weapon went soaring over Weiss’ head, forcing her to dive after it, right off the edge of the cliff. It was a good thing that was where Weiss needed to go.

Snatching the gun out of the air, Weiss plummeted headfirst towards the ocean and once again snapped open her wings instinctively in an attempt to slow her far too rapid descent. Surprisingly, it did have some impact, enough to give her time to switch Lilie der Rache around to Ice Dust. With a pulse of Aura, Weiss froze an incoming wave solid and flipped mid-air, cloak fluttering behind her, to land on the incline, freezing the water as she went.

Arching back towards the base of the cliff, Weiss glanced up and watched as Ruby too came diving down. With a flick of her hand, another wave froze as it crashed against the rocks, forming a ramp, which Ruby landed on and skated down.

“Let’s go!” The leader called out as she glided along the ice just ahead of Weiss, who skated after her and started forming small platforms for them to leap across towards the giant mech.

“Ruby, have I ever mentioned that I hate being bait?” Weiss called out to her girlfriend as they hopped across the ice floe, the mech following their movements and aiming its cannon at them.

“I’ll bear it in mind.” Ruby called back distractedly as they neared the feet of the mech. Weiss was very concerned about that giant cannon and was incredibly grateful when she heard the telltale sounds of Nora’s grenades firing and she saw out of the corner of her eye the arcing trails of pink smoke.

Her relief was short lived, however, as the mech’s free hand raised up and the familiar pattern of a Hard Light Dust shield formed, stopping Nora’s bombardment in its tracks.

“Surely you knew Atlas is the father of Hard Light Dust technology? Or do you lesser mortals have such poor education?” Weiss let out a soft growl at the woman’s arrogance. It felt like everything she hated about Atlas and the elite of the kingdom were all concentrated in a three foot package of elderly lesbian.

“Cordo just activated shields!” Jaune called over the communications as Cordovin continued to laugh maniacally, her focus now on Nora’s group, who were still beset by Grimm.

“I saw, we need to find the generator.” Oscar responded as Weiss and Ruby continued to hop across the water.

“In video games, the weak spot is normally on the back of these things.” Ruby suggested, only for Weiss to goggle at her.

“Are you serious? This isn’t a game!”

“I’m only tryin- Look out!” Weiss looked up at Ruby’s warning cry and leaped away as the colossus stomped far too close for comfort, the waves displacing Weiss’ ice floes.

“Something that big must require such a vast quantity of Hard Light Dust to maintain its shield, I doubt they’ve put in a full protection shield.” Weiss informed the group through her ear piece as she hopped over to Ruby. “Probably one to protect against high velocity impacts and a configurable one for full shielding.”

“And you know this how?” Qrow snarked back, the sound of shotgun blasts and the roars of dying Grimm in the background.

“Dust is my business, of course I know its various applications.” Weiss snapped back angrily, landing beside Ruby on a larger patch of ice. “We’ll need to get up close to it without her noticing to do anything.”

“Can you bring it down then, Weiss?” Ruby asked, looking up worriedly at the mech as it fired Rock Dust at the combatants still on the cliffs.

“I can try.” Letting her aura flow through her bracer, Weiss slammed her fist down into the ice floe and jerked it up. The ice raced across the surface of the water before launching up in several large spikes that slammed into the side of one of the mech’s legs and knocked it off balance.

Weiss didn’t have long to bask in the feeling of success, however, as there was a cry of warning from Oscar and she saw the large battery of missiles pointing directly at them. They were far too vulnerable on the water, they needed more maneuverability.

Thinking fast, Weiss spun Lilie around to Wind Dust and pulsed her Aura as the first missiles fired. There was a sharp tug on the back of her cloak and she heard a yelp of surprise from Ruby as the pair of them were swept up out of harm’s way by Weiss’ Arma Gigas. Once again suspended on a swirling vortex of air thanks to Weiss’ Dust enhancements, the Arma Gigas carried the girls up into the air and placed Weiss onto its shoulder.

“Ruby, go!” At her mental command, the summon pulled back and launched Ruby at the mech, where she flew through the high velocity shield and impaled Crescent Rose into the top of the cabin. The force of the impact sent the still off-balance robot staggering into the cliff, where it landed with a loud crash and crushed several Manticores beneath its bulk.

Glancing down at the cliff, she saw Jaune and his team trying to break away to attack the mech, but they were hampered by a group of Manticores. With a small gesture, the Arma Gigas swept in and drew its sword. Crouching on the shoulder, Weiss jumped up and the knight summon swung its sword, catching Weiss on the flat of its blade and launching her into the midst of the Manticores.

“Go!” Jaune called out to his team as Weiss engaged the Manticores. The three of them made a break for the mech as it struggled to get up, since a few Manticores had decided to attack it as well. Weiss, meanwhile, was busy trying to stay alive, and silently cursed herself for her impulsive decision. She was saved from being overwhelmed by the small horde by the timely arrival of her summon, which barrelled into one of the Manticores that had been bearing down on her and sent it flying into a tree.

Weiss had gotten quite a bit better at fighting alongside her summon since Menagerie, but it did help a lot that she didn’t have to worry about weaving in between its feet. A loud yelp caught her attention, and Weiss looked over to see the mech standing up again whilst Ruby remained anchored just above its cockpit.

The movement of the mech getting up, however, dislodged her a little and sent her sliding down to hang in front of the windshield. Weiss was already moving and held out a hand for her Arma Gigas to pick her up, and the pair sped out over the water as the mech reached out to grab Ruby.

With a burst of petals, Ruby dropped down, evading the mech’s hand and plummeting toward the ocean as Weiss urged her summon forward. With a burst of speed, the Arma Gigas was just able to grab Ruby and pull her to safety before darting out of the way.

“Ruby, what were you thinking?” Weiss reprimanded as Ruby climbed up onto the knight’s other shoulder. “What if I hadn’t caught you?!”

“I know you’ll always be there to catch me.” Ruby chirped and Weiss rolled her eyes, directing the summon to flit around the mech and keep it occupied. It was not the most comfortable way to fly, and Weiss resolved to kill a Sphynx at some point as the summon darted in and dragged its sword along the arm of the robot.

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion from behind the mech, which sent it staggering, and Weiss watched as the Hard Light shields flickered and faded.

“No, no, no, no!” Cordovin screamed over the loudspeakers. Meanwhile, Weiss directed her summon to fly around the back of the robot to see the damages. She was rather surprised to see Qrow and Ren clinging to the back with a large generator between them that was smoking and sparking.

“See? I told you the weak spot was on the back.” Ruby said smugly as Weiss simply rolled her eyes and brought her summon closer.

“Grab on.” She ordered the two men, who reluctantly reached out to hold onto the Arma Gigas’ outstretched arms. Weiss definitely needed a better mode of aerial transport as she commanded her summon to fly its complement of passengers away from the mech.

As they rounded the side of it, they watched as the gigantic hand swung in and crashed into Jaune and Nora, sending them both flying into some rocks, where they both lay motionless.

“No!” Ren cried out, and Weiss urged the Arma Gigas forward as a few Manticores noticed the downed teens and raced towards them eagerly. She was so focused on getting to Jaune and Nora, Weiss had stopped paying attention to Cordovin and the mech. She only just noticed the cannon appearing in her peripheral vision and heard the distinct hum of it powering up.

She only just had enough time to command the summon to throw Qrow and Ren towards the cliffs before the cannon fired a blast of concentrated air at point blank range. The roar of wind deafened Weiss as her summon was unable to withstand the blast of air and dissolved into nothingness as she and Ruby were flung away.

With a painful crash, Weiss slammed into the ground just at the cliff’s edge. Scrambling to her feet as fast as possible, Weiss just caught a glimpse of a burst of petals falling just short.

“Ruby!” Weiss threw herself to the edge of the cliff and reached out fruitlessly for her girlfriend, who reformed in mid-air to try and grab for Weiss, only to just graze the tips of their fingers before Ruby plummeted down.

Desperate, Weiss scrambled across the ground to look over the edge and breathed a sigh of relief to see Ruby clinging onto Crescent Rose about halfway down the cliff. Her relief was short lived, however, as the mech stomped forward and aimed its cannon at Ruby.

She could hear the whirring as the cannon charged up again and she frantically tried to think of a way to get Ruby to safety. She was more than a little hampered in any plans she could come up with, however, by the loud growling of several Manticores approaching her.

“Ruby!” She called down as she got to her feet with no idea of what to do. She was just about to consider diving off the cliff and knocking Ruby down with her into the ocean, when their salvation came in the form of a loud and obnoxious voice.

“Hey, Cordy! Do you remember our first time together? Well, I faked it!”

“Mariaaaaaaa!” Cordovin screamed, distracted from firing at Ruby by Maria’s taunts as she turned to follow the airship, which was flying in circles around the mech. Satisfied that she had been bought some breathing room, Weiss got up to face the approaching Manticores. After watching so many of their kin slaughtered, the Grimm seemed more wary of the group now, less eager to throw themselves into the fray.

She could hear the sounds of Crescent Rose slamming into the cliff behind her as she raised her blade, ready to cut down the horde.

Before she could begin her attack, however, there was a sudden burst of lightning from nowhere that incinerated the beasts crowding around Weiss. She was rather unsurprised to see Neo standing behind them as the smoke cleared, with a cocky smile on her face.

“You’re getting better at that.” Weiss complimented her girlfriend, who gave her a salute before running off to deal with the last few remaining dregs of the Grimm horde. Neo seemed to have been making good use of her time, slaughtering her way through the Manticores, and any misgivings about not being used to fighting Grimm were very much proven wrong. Meanwhile, Weiss turned back to the cliff edge and reached down to offer Ruby a hand.

“Thanks.” The leader grasped Weiss’ hand and used it to haul herself up before looking up at the weaving airship. They seemed to have stopped firing weapons and were instead trading barbs, most of which were both highly inappropriate and sexual. “Oscar, what’s going on?”

“I know we were supposed to stay out of the way, but we couldn’t just let you get shot!” The young boy protested over the comms. “Anyway, I’ve got a plan. I think I know how we can disable the cannon.”

“Well, we’re all ears.” Nora’s voice came through the comms and just to the side. Looking over, Weiss was relieved to see her and Jaune being helped along by Qrow and Ren. They all looked thoroughly exhausted, but thankfully had no visible injuries.

“Okay, so the cylinder on the cannon rotates and locks in different Dust canisters for the various attacks, right?”

“We noticed.” Weiss said dryly, watching the continuing aerial verbal sparring match.

“Right, but the missile launcher doesn’t, it pops out! If we can hit it, we could set off a massive explosion and wreck the whole cannon.” Weiss’ eyes widened as the full weight of what Oscar was suggesting hit her.

“The only way anyone could make that shot would be if they were staring right down the barrel of the cannon.” She squawked, before turning to glare at Ruby when she gave a thoughtful hum. “Ruby, don’t you dare.”

“I’m the best shot, and we’d only get one chance.” Ruby mused, eyes fixed on the mech as it swung around wildly to follow the airship.

“Well, if you want to get her to aim at you, I can guarantee that!” The airship swept out of its circling and came to a hover in front of them, Oscar sliding open the side hatch.

“Ruby!” Weiss protested, but she was unable to stop the leader from leaping into the airship, which took off back towards the giant robot.

“Hey, Cordy, you know that stick you’ve got stuck up your ass? Well I’ve got one last missile here ready to join it!” Maria taunted over the airship’s broadcast system.

“Only one? Ha, well, I have plenty!” Cordovin seemed to have fallen for the taunt as she raised the cannon to point directly at the airship. Weiss gripped her sword nervously as the bank of missiles rose out of the arm.

“Come on, Ruby.” Jaune muttered from beside her, his eyes also fixed on the airship as it flew at the mech. A grip on Weiss’ arm made her look down to see Neo watching anxiously as well, the last of the Grimm dissolving on the ground behind her.

Weiss heard the familiar retort of Crescent Rose firing, the shot echoing across the water. Only there was no big explosion as they’d expected. The bank of missiles suddenly retracted, leaving Ruby’s bullet to plink harmlessly off the mech’s armour.

“You thought you could trick me?!” Cordovin raged over the speakers as the cannon continued to track the airship.

“Ruby, get out of there!” Weiss screamed into the comms. The airship pulled up sharply but it wasn’t enough. A crackling blast of electricity clipped the tail of the airship, arcing along the hull and sending it spinning out of control towards them. “No!”

The airship wheeled overhead and crashed through the trees behind them. Weiss and Neo were already running, darting through the trees to find the crash site. A long furrow had been gouged into the earth with the crashed ship lying at the end.

“Ruby? Ruby?!” Weiss called out, jumping over the knocked over trees and branches, rushing towards the downed Manta. The side hatch was pushed open and Ruby staggered out using her scythe to support herself. “Oh thank the gods!” Weiss crashed into her girlfriend, pulling her into a tight hug, followed shortly by Neo.

Their relieved reunion was short-lived, however, as it was interrupted by Cordovin’s cackling laughter. “How very clever, but even the smartest animals can’t hope to match the intellect of man!” Ruby glared over Weiss’ shoulder before pulling out of the hug and limping doggedly towards the approaching mech.

“Ruby, no! You’re hurt!” Weiss tried to hold her girlfriend back but Ruby gave her a pleading look.

“I need you to trust me, Princess.” Ruby said firmly, eyes shining with determination. Reluctantly, Weiss nodded but she didn’t release her hold.

“I’m coming with you.” Ruby gave her a small smile before leading the way out of the forest and towards the approaching mech. The young leader stood tall before the mech which came to a halt before them and Cordovin’s voice rang out.

“Surrender and face punishment for your crimes!”

“No!” Ruby yelled back defiantly. “We are going to Atlas, and no hateful old woman is going to stop us. Bigger people have tried and failed.” Weiss wasn’t entirely sure what Ruby hoped to achieve with her impassioned speech, but she stood supportively beside her, sword held in a loose guard, just in case.

“We’re supposed to use our power to protect, but all you’ve done is use it to look down on people. We didn’t want to steal from you, but you gave us no choice! You refused to even listen to us!” Ruby took a deep breath and glared up at the impassive and blank front window of the robot. “I’m giving you one last chance to stand down and hear us out.”

Silence fell over the cliffs, nervous tension crackling in the air until it was finally broken by Cordovin. “I’ve heard enough.” The words were spoken with an awful finality as the cannon raised to aim directly at Ruby and Weiss.

“You’ll always catch me?” Ruby asked Weiss quietly as the cannon began to charge up. She could hear the sounds of their friends calling for them to run as she looked up at Ruby.

“Always.”

“Then catch me.” Ruby flashed her a cocky grin before bursting into petals and darting up into the barrel of the cannon itself.

“Ruby!” Weiss screamed as her girlfriend flew inside, her screech of shock echoed by the others. She briefly caught a glimpse of Ruby planting Crescent Rose into the barrel before it was swung upwards and Weiss realised what Ruby was about to do. If foolish recklessness was what determined a team leader, then Ruby definitely deserved it.

With an enormous boom that rocked the ground, the mech’s cannon arm exploded, massive spikes of rock and ice bursting forth as a small red shape flew out of it and hurtled towards Weiss. With a flick of her wrist, Weiss conjured a series of glyphs along Ruby’s trajectory as she ran forwards and braced herself.

With a grunt of effort, Weiss caught the falling woman and nearly toppled over from the impact. “Ruby, are you alright?” She asked, panic-stricken as Ruby coughed weakly and looked up at her.

“I knew you’d catch me.” She mumbled, pulling in close to Weiss with a happy sigh. Weiss heard the others hurrying over to them as Cordovin screeched in anguish.

“No! No, no, no, no, no!” Weiss looked up at the mech, whose cannon arm had made it overbalance. The robot was currently struggling to raise the arm, but it was far too heavy. With a whir of engines, the battered airship flew over the trees and came to a hover beside them with Neo at the helm now.

“You’re not getting to Atlas, none of you!” Cordovin continued to rage over the speakers. “All forces converge on my position and eliminate these ingrates, once and for all!”

“Uh oh.” Qrow grumbled, standing up from examining Ruby for any injuries. “Everyone on board, we’re making a run for it.”

“What about Blake and Yang?” Weiss asked, she’d been so caught up with the fight, she’d almost forgotten about their missing teammates. She didn’t need to worry about them though as another voice spoke over the speakers, Cordovin having left the broadcast on.

“Ma’am, we’ve been trying to reach you! Argus is in danger!”

“What?!” The group on the ground exchanged worried looks as the new voice continued.

“It’s a Leviathan, Ma’am. It began its approach whilst you were engaged with the criminals.” With a horrible sinking feeling, Weiss now realised why the Argus Base had a giant robot. It was Ruby who summed it up best as she clambered to her feet and looked over the disabled mech.

“Oh fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forget if Ruby has sworn yet in this fic, she probably has, but she deserves to swear more often. Of course things had to go from bad to worse for them, because that's the way Remnant works it seems. Only one more chapter before the end of the Mistral arc and the beginning of the Atlas arc and as such I feel I must apologise in advance. I'm sorry for what is to come.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being the best at grammar, far far better than I am. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and indulging my strangeness.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	22. Chapter 22

“This is all your fault!” Cordovin screamed over the mech’s speakers as she fruitlessly tried to raise the cannon arm. The group, meanwhile, wasn’t paying too much attention to her, instead listening to the radio chatter from the rest of the Argus Base’s personnel.

“The Leviathan has submerged, we can’t hit it! Where is Cordovin?!” A man yelled from the radio as they all exchanged nervous looks.

“Your fault!” Cordovin continued to scream until Maria hollered back over the Manta’s broadcast system.

“Hey, Cordy! You’re the moron who decided to chase down  _ one _ stolen ship with a giant fucking robot! Ever heard of proportional response?!” Weiss wasn’t sure whether Maria’s perfectly valid point actually got through to Cordovin, but it did shut her up and gave them some quiet to think with only the radio chatter running in the background.

“Ruby, what do we do?” Weiss asked nervously, looking in the direction of Argus. They couldn’t see the city from here, but she could imagine what was happening there, and she felt a dark pit of guilt gnawing at her stomach.

“We…” Ruby hesitated, but before she could answer, she was interrupted by a loud shout from the forest.

“Ruby!” They all turned to look at the voice and there was a collective sigh of relief as Yang and Blake burst out of the woods hand in hand, looking very harrowed and exhausted.

“Yang, Blake! Are you okay?” Ruby and Weiss rushed over to their teammates and pulled them into a tight hug.

“We’re fine.” Blake did not sound fine, in fact, they sounded really quite shaken. Weiss noticed their long coat was missing, and perhaps more worryingly, both of the pair’s hands were stained with red. “What is that?” They asked, looking up at the Atlesian mech in wide-eyed shock.

“That would be a giant robot designed to repel any giant Grimm that would attack Argus.” Weiss explained, looking up as well at the giant mech, before a loud echoing roar sounded from along the coast. “And that would be a giant Grimm approaching Argus after we just wrecked the giant robot. I didn’t even say things couldn’t get any worse this time.”

“Well, that’s great.” Yang summed up sarcastically. Meanwhile, Blake looked distraught.

“Cordovin chased you because I didn’t shut down the radar.” They moaned, ears drooping in sorrow.

“It’s not your fault, Blake.” Yang reassured them, though she too looked rather upset for some reason.

“Can we all stop dilly-dallying and get going before something else goes wrong?” Maria called out from the Manta, jolting the group out of the momentary calm. Quickly, they all clambered aboard the hovering airship, it was a bit of a squeeze but they all fit.

“Wait, where are you going?” Cordovin seemed to have ceased in her contemplation and was trying to pull the cannon out of the water once more. They all exchanged glances, what were they going to do. Then Ruby made her way into the cockpit and picked up the receiver.

“We’re going to do what Hunters are supposed to, protect the people.” She gestured to Neo, who nodded and peeled off, leaving the immobilised mech in their wake as they flew back towards Argus.

“I hate to be the God of Darkness’ advocate here, but shouldn’t we be getting the lamp to Atlas?” Maria spoke up from her spot in the copilot’s seat. “I mean, what better chance will we have other than when the military are busy fighting off this Grimm?”

“No way.” Ruby put down firmly, to a chorus of agreement from the other teens.

“We can’t just leave these people, not like this.” Weiss added, reaching out to squeeze Ruby’s shoulder.

“It’s like you said, a hunter is supposed to protect others to the bitter end.” Maria blinked a few times at Blake’s addition before shrugging.

“It’s good to know the world still has hunters like you lot, then.” She smiled a little as the airship rounded the last cliff and they saw the full-scale of the attack on Argus. If Weiss had thought the group of Manticores that had been attacking them at the cliffs was large, that was nothing compared to this horde. Not just Manticores either, Weiss counted at least half a dozen Sphinxes, and down in the water, wading steadily towards the city, was an enormous Grimm.

The name Leviathan was accurate. It was gargantuan, almost as big as Cordovin’s mech, and fully justified the existence of the giant robot. The group all crowded towards the cockpit to look at the monstrosity, which came to a halt as several pylons rose from the ocean and a Hard Light barrier crackled to life between them.

Weiss briefly wondered just how much Hard Light Dust the Argus Military Base imported from Solitas and concluded it must be a lot. Several other Manta ships flew down to engage the Leviathan, firing missiles at the beast that did little to no damage to it. As the airships finished their attack run, the Leviathan reared back then lunged forward with its mouth wide open.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me!” Nora shrieked in dismay as a giant beam of energy erupted from the Leviathan’s mouth. The beam was unable to penetrate the Hard Light shield, but the Grimm shifted its head and swept the beam across one of the pylons, destroying it and taking down the shield with it. “It’s huge  _ and _ can spit lasers?! How is that fair?!”

As usual when she was in the grip of panic, Weiss’ mind was busy fixating on a relatively minor detail. In this case, how terribly the Hard Light shields were designed if the thing powering them could be destroyed from the outside.

“All squadrons, fall back. Begin evacuation procedures. Disengage the Leviathan, I repeat, disengage the Leviathan, over.” A panicked voice crackled over the radio and they all looked out to see the other airships peeling off and heading for Argus.

“No, no, no.” Ruby hissed, grabbing the receiver and jamming the transmit button. “Don’t retreat! Um, over!”

“Who is this? Identify yourself!” The voice snapped back and Weiss could swear she could hear yelling and alarms in the background.

“I’m a huntress, my team and I are en route and can weaken the Leviathan for your attack, over.”

“We can?” Jaune asked dubiously, and Ruby looked back at the others crowded in the airship.

“ _ I  _ can.” It took a moment for Weiss to realise what Ruby was referring to.

“No, Ruby, you can’t. It’s too risky. You literally just jumped into the barrel of a giant cannon!” Weiss glared at her girlfriend, who simply set her jaw.

“I’ve done it before, and we don’t have much of a choice, do we? We’re all running low on ammo and Aura.” Weiss had to concede that point, looking around the assembled group, they all looked worn and tired from the fight against Cordovin.

“Do you think you can do it?” She asked, trying and failing to keep the anxiety out of her voice.

“I have to.” Before she could say anything else, the radio crackled to life again.

“Manta 5-1, you have been marked as hostile. You will not receive any support, over.” The radio fell silent after that and Ruby glared at it before sending a final message.

“Fine, I guess we’re doing this on our own, then.” She slammed the receiver back into its cradle and turned back to face the others in the cockpit. She took a deep calming breath before looking over at Jaune and Ren. “Can you two mask us so we don’t have to deal with any of the other Grimm?”

“We’ll do our best, but we’re pretty much running on empty.”

“Whatever you’ve got. Neo, when it stops at the next barrier, get us down there so we can hit it.” The pastel girl nodded distractedly, too busy weaving between various dogfights and evading a few Grimm that had decided to follow them to pay much attention. “Okay. Jaune, Ren, do it.”

The two young men nodded and closed their eyes. Weiss hadn’t seen Jaune use his Aura amplification up close before. It was rather fascinating to watch as his Aura flowed into Ren, who pressed his hands against the airship’s bulkhead. An odd feeling washed over Weiss and the few Grimm they’d managed to pick up lost interest and flew off to find fresh targets.

As the Leviathan approached the inner barrier Ruby tapped Neo on the shoulder. At the signal, Neo pushed the airship into a steep dive towards the Grimm. Weiss gripped the back of Maria’s seat hard as they dived towards the Leviathan, its maw wide open as it prepared to spew forth another beam of energy.

“Shit, pull up!” Maria called out as the beam lanced out, obliterating another poorly placed pylon and nearly hitting them as Neo just managed to pull out of the dive. By the time she was able to bring the airship around, the beast was on the move again, now with nothing between it and the city.

As if things couldn’t get much worse, Jaune and Ren slumped, thoroughly exhausted from their exertions.

“What do we do now?” Yang asked as she helped Nora support her boyfriends. Ruby stared out of the cockpit at the steadily trudging Leviathan and then looked back at Weiss.

Weiss did not like that look at all.

“Plan B.” Ruby marched over to one of the side doors and pulled it open. Wind howled as did the Grimm all around them as Ruby stood in the doorway and called back to Weiss. “I need some wings.”

“This is a bad idea.” She told Ruby, but complied, concentrating on one of the Manticores she’d slain on the Argus Limited and how she needed to be stronger to protect Ruby as she embarked on this foolhardy task. The glowing white Manticore burst forth from a glyph in mid-air and flew up alongside their airship.

With a small hop, Ruby jumped astride the summon and called over her shoulder. “Yang, Nora, I need you two to distract it, Weiss, fly me down.” The three nodded reluctantly and Weiss commanded the summon to swoop down towards the water. As the airship flew on the other side, Yang and Nora prepared their weapons.

“Hey, ugly! Up here!” Nora hollered, aiming Magnhild and firing off several grenades as Yang stood beside her and fired a few shells as well. The grenades impacted the Leviathan, and much like the missiles earlier, did nothing to harm the Grimm, but it definitely caught its attention.

Weiss watched anxiously as the small red cloaked figure perched upon the white Manticore flew up beside the Leviathan as it turned to look up at them. It’s great maw opened again and Weiss saw the energy gathering at the back of its throat once more.

“Everyone, hang on!” Maria called back to them as Neo pulled the controls hard. Weiss didn’t have time to grab hold of something and was thrown bodily against the other side of the airship as they narrowly avoided being hit by another blast from the beast. It was all Weiss could do to maintain her summon as she fell to the floor in an undignified heap.

Her ears were ringing from the sheer noise of the blast, but she could hear Yang calling out faintly. Shaking her head, Weiss scrambled to her feet, only to be roughly grabbed by Yang and pulled over to the open door.

“Weiss, something’s wrong, get her out of there!” Blinking, Weiss looked down and her heart froze. The Leviathan was staring directly at Ruby, who stood seemingly unaware atop the bobbing Manticore. “Why is it looking at her?!”

As Weiss started to direct her summon away she caught a glimpse of something blue and gold clipped to Ruby’s belt. That relic, that good-for-nothing Grimm-attracting piece of junk, had once again caused even more problems for them.

Weiss’ Manticore flapped hard ready to dart out of the way, but the Leviathan lunged with a speed that belied its size. It’s jaws opened wide as it prepared to snap down on Ruby.

“Ruby! No!” Weiss screamed, reaching out as though it would somehow help.

There was an odd lurch in Weiss’ stomach, and then...

White.

The now familiar white light erupted forth from Ruby, blinding Weiss and covering the area. Weiss could hear the shrieks of the lesser Grimm caught in the blast radius as they were disintegrated. Blinking hard to clear her eyes, Weiss looked down frantically for Ruby.

“Oh, thank the gods.” She breathed. The Leviathan stood petrified, and before it hovered a Manticore with a small red-cloaked figure completely unharmed and perched upon its back.

Weiss’ relief didn’t last long. With a sickening crack, the stone around the Leviathan’s head crumbled away, revealing the Grimm alive and pissed. Ruby’s plan had failed.

“No.” Weiss whispered, too stunned to command her summon to move out of the way as the Leviathan turned its head to glare at Ruby, its mouth opening again with a light glowing at the back of its throat. This couldn’t be it, it just couldn’t.

“Pathetic! Let me show you how Atlas deals with Leviathans!” A loud and annoyingly familiar voice called out, catching the attention of everyone, including the Leviathan. Rounding the cliffs and storming through the ocean came Cordovin’s mech, running far faster than it had earlier with an odd gait, both owing to the now missing cannon arm.

Weiss finally overcame her shock enough to command her Manticore to fly out of the way as the mech covered the distance between it and the half-petrified Grimm surprisingly quickly. With an almighty crash that echoed around the bay, the mech’s remaining fist collided with the Leviathan, shattering the last of the stone that had immobilised it and sending it reeling back.

When the giant robot had been trying to fight them, it had been ungainly and had immense difficulty facing such small and agile opponents. It had no such problem facing off against the Leviathan. The Grimm roared as the mech’s fist hammered hit after hit into it, keeping it off-balance and unable to fight back.

“This is how Atlas protects the people!” Cordovin screamed through the speakers, and Weiss couldn’t help but roll her eyes that even when she was doing something helpful for once, the woman still wouldn’t shut up about Atlas.

Weiss’ Manticore flew up beside the airship as they circled around the giant melee. “Ruby! You are  _ never  _ doing that again!” yang called to her sister over the howling wing and roaring Grimm.

“Can we go now?” Maria asked watching the brawl intently so she didn’t see Ruby shake her head.

“Not until that Leviathan is taken down. Cordovin might still need our help.” As soon as Ruby said that, the Leviathan seemed to get its second wind and lashed out, scoring a heavy hit on the mech and knocking it back. “Scratch that, she definitely still needs our help.”

“Great, here we go again.” Maria grumbled. Weiss’ stomach lurched as Neo pulled the airship around and down towards the Leviathan, which was now pummelling Cordovin’s battered mech. She wasn’t entirely sure what they could do, but if Ruby said they were going to help, then they were going to help.

“Ruby, get in here!” Weiss held out a hand to Ruby who leapt from the Manticore’s back and into the airship. With its rider safe, Weiss directed her summon to divebomb the Leviathan, which was trying to bite a chunk out of the mech’s damaged side.

With a roar, the Manticore swept in and fired several ephemeral white fireballs at the Leviathan, drawing its attention. The distraction didn’t last for long though, as it wheeled around for another attack, the Leviathan reached up with its large claws and swiped the summon out of the air. The impact was more than enough to destroy it, and Weiss felt the small weight lift off her mind as it dissolved into nothingness.

It appeared to have been a sufficient distraction though. As the Leviathan returned its attention to the mech, it was caught with a vicious uppercut. When the metal fist connected with the beast’s jaw, it made a sickening crunch and the mouth flopped open, broken by the impact. Of course, since it was a colossal Grimm, that wasn’t enough to destroy it, but it was definitely on the ropes and seemed to be trying to retreat.

“Oh no you don’t!” Nora hollered at it and fired off another salvo of grenades at its now mangled face. The explosions blinded the Leviathan and it roared as best it could with its jaw only hanging on by some dark sinew.

It turned wildly to try to avoid the grenades only for it to swing right into the mech’s path. The hand reached out and grabbed a hold of the loosely swinging jaw, and with a horrible tearing noise, pulled it clean off and proceeded to use it as a crude weapon to batter the Grimm further.

It made for a surprisingly effective weapon, as the disembodied jaw’s teeth pierced through the bony armour. With a strangled scream, the Leviathan flailed helplessly, but its struggles got weaker and weaker until they stopped completely and smoke started pouring out of it and it began to dissolve.

“Okay, great, now can we go?” Maria asked in exasperation to which Ruby finally nodded in agreement and Neo directed the airship north. “Good, hopefully we can get away before Cordy notices.”

“Maria, I know you and your motley crew can hear me.” Cordovin’s voice crackled in over the radio and Weiss spared Maria a withering look for tempting fate. Ruby made her way to the cockpit and picked up the receiver.

“We can hear you.”

“By all rights I should be placing the lot of you under arrest for theft, massive property damage and insulting an Atlesian Special Operative.” Weiss groaned quietly. After all they’d just gone through, they still weren’t going to get to Atlas. “But… I’m sure the upper brass won’t notice one more Manta missing after that battle.

“What?” Ruby echoed Weiss’ thoughts.

“I’m turning a blind eye for the first time in my career, so get going before I change my mind.”

“Thank you.” Ruby breathed a sigh of relief and was about to replace the receiver, but Cordovin wasn’t quite finished yet.

“Oh, and Maria? I’m sorry things didn’t work out between us.” The old woman took the small device from Ruby.

“I’m sorry too, Cordy. You still have a stick up your ass though.” Weiss was certain that this final jab would push Cordovin over the edge, but instead there was a low chuckle from the radio.

“Only because you put it there, you kinky old hag.” And with that the radio went dead and Maria hung up the receiver. Everyone was silent for a moment, unable to believe their luck, until the silence was broken.

“And  _ that  _ is why I dated her.” Maria informed the group smugly to a collective groan. Thoroughly exhausted, Weiss collapsed to the floor and slid over to Yang and Blake who were similarly seated. The red was now gone from their hands and Weiss wondered for a moment if she’d imagined it earlier.

They sat in silence for several minutes, slowly piecing themselves back together as they flew onward, until Weiss asked the burning question.

“So what happened?” Neither Yang nor Blake answered immediately. The latter shuffled closer to the former and laid their head on her shoulder before speaking.

“Adam happened.” They murmured quietly and Weiss’ blood ran cold. “He… He’d been following us ever since Haven. I thought I was just seeing things, but it was really him.”

“I’m sorry, Blake.” Weiss said, but the cat Faunus shook their head.

“No, I’m sorry. I could have disabled the radar, I had time, Adam ran away from the tower, tried to lure me after him. And it worked.” Tears started to drip down their cheeks. “It’s all my fault. I-I let my anger consume me, and I nearly paid for it, we all nearly paid for it.”

“Blake, it’s okay. You were fulfilling your promise to your māmā.” Yang tried to reassure Blake, but they didn’t seem convinced.

“What happened after you chased him?” Weiss asked quietly and Blake shrugged.

“We ended up by a waterfall, he… nearly got me, he broke my weapon and had me at swordpoint. But then Yang came, she hit him with Bumblebee.” They smiled just a little at that as Yang groaned quietly.

“My poor bike, lost at the bottom of a river.” She bemoaned the loss of her precious ride, but looked down at Blake with a soft smile. “But I’d do it a thousand times over to save you.” Blake made a happy hum and pulled closer to Yang’s side as the blonde’s expression became serious. “It was a pretty hard fight but… We killed him. He’s gone, forever.”

“Good riddance.” Blake mumbled sleepily as they shifted around to try to get more comfortable.

“I’m glad you two made it out okay.” Blake hummed their thanks for the sentiment, and after a few moments, drifted off to sleep, fingers loosely intertwined with Yang’s which Weiss raised an eyebrow at.

“Are you two…?” She asked Yang quietly. Much to her disappointment though, Yang shook her head.

“I know why you’d think that. We just went through a life-threatening situation and it reminded us of how short our lives are and that we should make each moment last. Something like that?” Weiss nodded. “Honestly, it did remind us of that. But also, if we were to get back together after that, it would mean that  _ he  _ catalysed it, or that we were scared our lives will be too short.”

Weiss cocked her head in confusion, not quite getting Yang’s point, so the blonde elaborated. “If we do get back together, it won’t be because we were forced into it by circumstance or were scared. It’ll be because  _ we _ want to give it another shot, and because  _ we _ think we’re healthy enough to try again.”

Slowly, Weiss nodded. She sort of understood what Yang was trying to say. Sighing softly, she wriggled across the floor and laid her head on Yang’s other shoulder. Weiss was thoroughly exhausted by everything that had happened, and it wasn’t even noon yet. With another sigh, Weiss closed her eyes and tried to sleep. She knew she’d need all her energy for her imminent return to Atlas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And at last we reach the end of V6, hopefully the final few battles lived up to the show's. Also I decided the giant drill thing was too silly, so instead I replaced it with the jaw-bludgeoning, much more sensible. Anyway, next week we get to Atlas and the fun there is to be had there. I'm sorry!
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being a font of knowledge. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading, despite her affection for Hooty, nature's favourite abomination.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	23. Chapter 23

“Weiss? Weeeeeiiiiiiss.” A soft voice and gentle shaking pulled Weiss from her slumber. Yawning wide and blinking blearily, Weiss looked up into Ruby’s face and smiled.

“Hi, Liebling.” She mumbled sleepily, trying to raise herself up to give Ruby a kiss. Her girlfriend obliged, smiling into the chaste kiss before pulling back. “What is it?”

“We’re almost at Atlas. I figured you’d want me to wake you up for this.” Weiss nodded, still a little drowsy, and crawled to her feet as Ruby moved over to shake Yang and Blake awake. Looking around the airship, she saw to her surprise Nora and Neo snuggled up together whilst Ren and Jaune dozed against each other.

“Uh, kids, you might want to come look at this.” Maria called from the pilot’s seat, and Weiss made her way into the cockpit to see what she was talking about. There in front of them, rising out of the clouds, was the giant floating city of Atlas. Weiss hadn’t seen the sight in over two years now, not since she’d first left for Beacon. Her stomach churned at the sight of home and she gripped one of the seats for support as she gazed upon the majesty of the greatest kingdom.

As they drew closer, something else emerged from the clouds as Ruby and the others joined her in looking out.

“That’s a lot of ships.” Yang commented rather unhelpfully, but pretty much all Weiss could do was nod in agreement.

“It looks like the entire fleet.” Qrow gravelled out, looking very worried. “They weren’t lying about the whole kingdom being on lockdown.”

Before anyone else could comment on the concerning state of affairs, the radio crackled to life. “Manta 5-1, welcome home. Please proceed to Atlas Docking Bay Omega-12, a security team will meet you there, over.”

“Well, that’s not great.” Maria chirped, keeping the airship on course for the time being. “Please say we’re not actually going to follow those instructions.”

“If there’s going to be a security team, then we’ll get arrested immediately. There’s no way we’ll make it to Ironwood.” Weiss pointed out, watching the ships surrounding them nervously.

“So what do we do?”

“We need some space to think. Ms Calavera, can you get us down to Mantle?” Ruby asked the old woman, who nodded and pushed down on the controls sending them down into the smoggy city below.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been here. It still looks the same.” Nora told them, her nose squished up against the glass as she looked out over the former capital. Weiss, meanwhile, was trying to think of something they could do to get to Ironwood. Now that she was disinherited, her name carried next to no clout, and they didn’t have any contacts who were high up. None except…

“Winter!” She exclaimed suddenly, drawing everyone’s attention. “I’ll get in contact with Winter. She’s Ironwood’s right-hand woman, she can get us to him.”

“It might be worth a shot.” Ruby shrugged, so Weiss pulled out her scroll and flicked through her contacts to find her sister’s details. It had been over a year since she’d even seen her sister and Weiss hoped that she was still okay. Though it would be just her luck that something terrible had befallen the one member of her birth family she actually liked.

As they flew lower over the city of Mantle, Weiss caught a glimpse of several large screens attached to the taller buildings, and all of them displayed a several storey tall Ironwood, addressing the citizens.

“The Kingdom of Atlas will remain strong and will remain safe. I promise you this. Atlas will Prevail.” Weiss tore her attention away from the screens and back to her scroll, hitting the call button and waiting and praying for Winter to pick up.

“Is it just me, or does Ironwood look really  _ really  _ tired?” Yang asked of nobody in particular as Weiss paced the back of the airship restlessly.

“Things are very wrong here.” Qrow mumbled as the air control officer came back over the radio.

“Manta 5-1, you have detoured from your assigned landing route. Please make your way to Docking Bay Omega 12 immediately, do you copy? Over.”

“That’s not good, what are we doing now?” Maria asked, keeping the ship on their course, but nervously checking the radar frequently.

“We need to ditch the ship.” Yang said decisively, looking to Ruby for approval, who nodded.

“We can get lost in Mantle for a while, buy us some time.” She agreed as Weiss continued to stare at her unresponsive scroll.

“Winter will pull through, I know she will.” She muttered, wondering if she glared hard enough at it, Winter would magically answer her.

“Um, Weiss?” Blake called back to her from the cockpit. “You might want to see this.” Walking up to look out at whatever Blake was pointing at, Weiss was shocked to see her sister displayed upon one of the massive screens. Perhaps even more shocking though was that Winter wasn’t wearing her usual greatcoat. Instead her wings were free and framed her as though she was some majestic angel, watching over Mantle.

“A reminder to all Mantle citizens, failure to comply with Atlas Military personnel is a punishable offence.” Weiss couldn’t watch anymore. She retreated into the back of the airship and tried to block out the rest of what her sister was saying.

What was happening here? What was Winter doing, and why were her wings out like that? Winter could easily have been filmed in such a way that the wings were unnoticeable. They were on display on purpose, but Weiss had no real idea why.

“I’m not sure contacting the Ice Queen is such a good idea now.” Qrow drawled out, and Weiss looked at him with a glare.

“There’s clearly something very wrong here. If we can just talk to her, then-.”

“I’m not even sure we should be talking to Ironwood anymore.” Qrow interrupted darkly. “Not until we know more about what’s happening here, because this looks suspiciously like martial law in all but name.”

“But-.” Weiss tried to protest, but was cut off again, this time by Maria.

“You two calm down.” She sighed deeply. “I have a friend who can help us. I just hope he’s still using the same premises.” Maria pushed the airship into a dive and flipped off the radio as the air control officer tried to order them back up to Atlas. “Let me just find a place to land.” She hummed in thought before selecting a large area in between a large set of alleys. “Last stop: Mantle. All alight here, and don’t leave anything behind either.”

Weiss rolled her eyes and hopped out onto the solid ground of Solitas for the first time since she’d left for Beacon. Once everybody was out, Maria led the way down one of the alleyways, hobbling as quickly as she could until they reached to exit onto the main road. Holding up a hand for them to wait, she stuck her head out to check before gesturing them forward. Just before she emerged from the alleyway, Weiss shifted her cloak to fully cover her rather distinctive wings and pulled the hood up.

The group emerged from the alleyway and began to walk down the streets. Weiss was painfully aware of just how much they stood out amongst the citizens of Mantle with their brightly coloured clothing and various armaments. Atlesian Knights stood to attention on almost every street corner. and every so often a truck would drive past carrying soldiers or other things.

“Are there normally this many soldiers?” Jaune asked nervously, eyeing up a couple of the knights who were watching all who passed by.

“I don’t think so.” Weiss shrugged. “I never came down to Mantle.”

“It’s not unusual, but this does seem way more than usual.” Nora said, uncharacteristically quietly as she pulled both of her boyfriends closer to herself for comfort, something that Neo did as well with her girlfriends. She hadn’t said a word since they’d arrived in Atlas, and Weiss wondered whether this homecoming was even more nerve-wracking for Neo than it was for her.

It wasn’t just soldiers and robots either that served as a constant reminder of Atlas’ presence. A few drones flew down low through the streets, one of them stopping to hover in front of Yang, who stared at it curiously for a moment before shrugging and walking away, only for it to follow her. When she stopped again to get a closer look, the camera lens twisted and a bright light flashed from it, presumably taking Yang’s picture.

The blonde did not take this well and gave the drone a swift kick, sending it spinning into the road and into the path of an oncoming truck. The drone didn’t stand a chance and the truck didn’t even slow down, and Yang winced before giving a sheepish grin.

“Uh, we should maybe pick up the pace a little.” She suggested, walking quickly to the front of the pack and urging them along after her. As they walked, Maria explained a bit of Mantle and Atlas’ history to Ruby.

“Mantle had just lost the Great War, you see. They were struggling and needed a sign of a brighter future, and what could be brighter than a home in the clouds?”

“Only if you aren’t living in its shadow.” Nora added darkly, looking up at the underside of the great city with undisguised disdain.

“This whole city just seems awful.” Blake chipped in, looking around uneasily. “And I thought the conditions in Menagerie were pretty bad. Somehow, this is worse.”

“Well, if ya don’t like it, there’ s pleeeeenty of room out in the tundra!” A loud voice slurred from behind them. Turning, they all saw a pair of middle aged men. Weiss could smell the alcohol on them even from this distance.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend.” Blake apologized, without sounding at all apologetic.

“Atlas is the greatest kingdom, ya hear?!” The man continued to rant and Ruby made a move to confront him, but Blake held her back.

“Don’t cause a scene.” They murmured quietly as the other man chose this moment to speak up.

“It’s this embargo, the embargo’s just got us in a rough patch, but we’ll get past it. Atlas will prevail and all that.”

“It’s those fucking other kingdoms! We try to help them and this is how we’re repaid? I say we should let them all rot!” Blake sighed deeply.

“I’m sorry.” They apologised again, rolling their eyes, but the man just refused to let it go.

“Stupid Faunus like you wouldn’t understand anyway! Animals, the lot of you!” Anticipating what was going to happen next, Weiss and Blake quickly reached out to restrain Yang, Ruby and Neo as the three tried to set upon the drunken man.

“He’s not worth it.” Weiss hissed furiously, though she was sorely tempted to give him a piece of her mind. It wasn’t worth the scene it would cause.

After several tense seconds of struggling, the three women gave up and Weiss and Blake carefully released them. “Come on.” Maria started down the street again and the rest followed, ignoring the man’s drunken hollering as best they could.

Fortunately, they didn’t have to walk much further, as Maria led them up to a battered door with a large green holographic cross hovering over it. “This seems familiar…” Nora mumbled as Maria tapped her cane on the door and voice from inside invited them in. Maria opened the door and stumped in, calling out to someone inside and the others filed in dutifully after her.

An old man sat in a chair behind a desk, absently shuffling some papers as Maria approached him with possibly the first genuine smile Weiss had seen her wear. “Ah, it’s good to see you, old friend.”

The old man looked up in surprise and adjusted his glasses as he peered down at Maria. “Um, I’m sorry, have we met?”

“Oh well this is a fantastic start.” Ren grumbled softly in an uncharacteristic moment of sarcasm that was brought to a swift end by a sharp jab in the ribs from Jaune. Nora, however, was scrutinising the old man closely, as was Neo, oddly enough, her head cocked as it often did when she was thinking about something.

“Cybernetic optical implants? You put them in nearly fifty years ago and check up on them every ten odd years.” Maria tapped her eyes a couple of times for emphasis and the man leaned in even closer before perking up in surprise.

“Maria! Oh it’s been too long.”

“Ten years, just like always.” She sighed, shaking her head. Weiss blinked in surprise as instead of getting up from his chair, the chair walked out from behind the desk, revealing itself to have four legs that conveyed it and its occupant over to an examination table. Maria followed along and clambered up onto it as the old man started examining her eyes.

“I would’ve been here sooner, but I ran into these jokers on the Argus Limited and things got a little out of hand.” Maria and the old man chuckled as they looked back at the others.

“You okay there, little missy? You might want to pick up your jaw there.” Weiss looked around to see who the man was referring to, and was only a little surprised to see that it was Nora, though from her cursory glance she noticed that Neo too was staring wide-eyed at the man, something glimmering in her eyes.

“Dr P?!” Nora nearly shouted, before running forward and wrapping the old man in a tight hug. “Omigosh, I never thought I’d see you again!”

“I’m pretty sure I don’t know who you are.” The old man looked very confused and looked to Maria for help, who simply shrugged, looking equally perplexed.

“Of course you know me, Dr P, I’m Nora! You taught me ASL back when I was a little kid and non-verbal! And you were the only who listened when I told everyone I was a girl.” Nora chattered excitedly as everyone else exchanged more confused glances. The old man’s eyes suddenly widened in recognition.

“Little Nora Valkyrie?! My word, I must be getting old if I didn’t recognise you immediately.” The old man smiled paternally and reached out to ruffle Nora’s hair as she turned back to face the others.

“Guys, this is Dr P! Back when I was living here, he helped me out loads with stuff and kept me out of trouble and stuff.” She explained gleefully.

“You always were a rambunctious child, but I think you’re a little old to still be calling me ‘Dr P’. You can just call me Pietro.” He chuckled again, shaking his head. “How are your folks by the way?”

Nora deflated at this and shuffled uncomfortably on the spot. “They… There was a Grimm attack...”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It was a long time ago, and I’ve still got a family. I’ve got these guys.” Nora darted over and pulled Ren and Jaune into a tight hug.

“Could we perhaps get a better introduction?” Qrow grumbled, looking pointedly at Maria.

“When he’s not teaching underprivileged kids and volunteering at this clinic, Pietro is building the future of Atlas alongside Ironwood.” Maria explained, a note of pride in her voice. “He has one of the finest minds in all of Atlas.”

“And he’s working here?” Yang asked sceptically, looking around the rundown clinic.

“No matter how much good I do working with Ironwood up there, I know I can make a much bigger impact on the lives of people down here.” Pietro explained jovially, “And you should never forget where you came from.”

“Not to digress, but if you work with James, could you tell us what’s been going on here?” Qrow interrupted, looking more than a little impatient.

“Ah, well, the Fall of Beacon took its toll on all of us, but it hit James particularly hard. I don’t know what he saw there, but it changed him.”

“We all saw things there, it doesn’t justify this knee-jerk fear response.” Blake put down firmly, and Pietro just shrugged helplessly.

“I wouldn’t call him afraid, paranoid is a more accurate term.” He sighed deeply, removing his glasses and rubbing at his eyes. “It wasn’t just the Grimm, you understand. Someone broke Atlas’ security code, completely dismantled it and then turned it against us. They made us look like traitors to some and fools to the rest. Even worse, whoever did it has to be either a genius or one of our own. I fear that it’s both, and so does James.”

“Atlas isn’t sounding so safe after all.” Ren mumbled uncertainly, looking between his partners.

“Well, we didn’t come all this way just to leave immediately.” Oscar spoke up for the first time in a while.

“What about the council? Or Winter Schnee? What do they have to say about all of this?” Weiss asked, stepping forward and pulling down her hood to address Pietro properly.

“The council is afraid. They just roll over for James whenever he asks, though a few Mantle representatives are trying their best. As for Winter Schnee…” Weiss felt her heart drop.

“What happened to her?”

“Well, after the scandal of her sister getting exposed as a Faunus at the tournament, there were calls for her to prove her heritage as well, which as I’m sure you’ve seen, wasn’t what those people were hoping for.”

Weiss hung her head as Ruby reached over to pat her on the shoulder in comfort. She hadn’t thought about what the consequences for her getting exposed as a Faunus would do to Winter. “So then what happened?” She asked sombrely.

“Well, a lot of people tried to insist she resign or be demoted, but James refused. She’s still working for him, but she’s been given a  _ lot _ more of a public presence as of late.”

“I see.” Weiss continued to hang her head as she unfurled her wings from under her cloak and wrapped them around her protectively. She looked up at a small noise of surprise from Pietro, who was staring at her wings in shock.

“You’re Weiss Schnee!” He exclaimed in shock, looking a lot closer at the group now. “That must make you Team RWBY!”

“Wait, you know about us?” Yang asked, looking thoroughly confused. “Weiss I get, she’s famous, but the rest of us?”

“Oh, my girl, I should have recognised the four of you the moment you walked in here, my eyes must be going almost as fast as Maria’s. I’ve heard so much about you from my daughter.” Pietro chuckled, and the four exchanged looks.

“Your daughter?” Ruby asked, now incredibly perplexed. Before they could get an answer though, there was a loud wailing from a siren outside.

“No rest for the wicked.” Jaune grumbled, drawing his sword and heading outside. The others followed quickly, not heeding Pietro’s calls for them to wait. Rushing out, they saw people fleeing from something as the streetlights all changed colour and bathed the street in red.

“What’s going on?” Oscar asked as everyone drew their weapon and looked around for the threat. A loud growling came from further down the street, followed by gunfire.

“That sounds like Grimm.”

“No, really?” Qrow growled out irritably, cocking his weapon and readying it as the gunfire got closer and closer. “And here I thought it was a herd of puppies here to welcome us.” A few Atlesian Knights ran into view at the end of the street firing at an unseen enemy, before a flash of black leaped forward and knocked them out of sight, followed by several more, which spilled into the street and began charging for them.

“Sabyrs!” Weiss called out to the group as she recognised the feline Grimm. It had been a long time since she’d fought one. Fairly weak but a lot faster than most Grimm, the things could be a real pain sometimes.

“What are we waiting for?!” With a loud bang, Ruby fired off Crescent Rose and launched herself at the pack of Grimm. The others followed suit after a moment, Nora using Jaune’s shield to launch herself past Ruby and slam into the lead Sabyr with her hammer.

Weiss didn’t bother with the charge forward. She, Blake and Neo instead hung back and raised their guns and proceeded to fire upon the Grimm. As the rest of the group had run forward to engage the beasts, Weiss heard a yowling from behind. Whirling around, she saw several more Sabyrs emerging at the other end of the street and rushing towards them.

With a quick flick of her wrist, Weiss switched Lilie der Rache around to Gravity Dust and slammed her fist to the ground. Glyphs spun into existence beneath the charging Grimm and leviatated them up into the air, where they floated growling and snarling impotently.

“Neo!” Looking back at Weiss when her name was called, an evil grin spread across Neo’s face and she promptly vanished, only to reappear in mid air thrusting Hush’s blade into the Sabyr, before leaping to next. In short order, the Grimm were nothing but smoke and Neo was back on the ground with a smugly satisfied grin on her face.

The rear of the group successfully defended, Weiss returned her attention to the bulk of the Sabyr pack and the rest of their group. They’d all spread out by now, each member going after Grimm on their own initiative. Even Blake had broken away from the rear and was firing their pistol at several Sabyrs bearing down on Yang.

Flipping Penny Dreadful out into its sword form, Weiss darted forward and struck down a couple of Sabyrs, even using her wing to knock one aside before eviscerating it. Turning around to look for her next target, Weiss’ heart stuttered as she caught sight of a Sabyr mid-leap for Blake’s unguarded flank. Her arm was in motion, ready to summon a glyph. but as it was about to spin into existence. a familiar green laser arced from somewhere and bisected the Grimm.

“Thanks, Weiss.” Blake called over to her who shook her head in bafflement.

“That wasn’t me!” Weiss protested, looking around wildly for the source of the beam. It had been the exact same colour as her weapon’s, but it couldn’t be. That would mean…

Weiss didn’t have to look far for the source of the lasers as several more arced down from the sky, obliterating the last of the Grimm. The loud sirens that had been wailing throughout the short fight petered out and the streetlights returned to their usual colour, but Weiss wasn’t paying attention to that, her gaze was firmly fixed on the sky and the figure that had just flown into view.

Held aloft by bright green flames burning from her boots, the figure twirled gracefully in the air, bright orange hair flying out behind her before she descended gently to the ground. It couldn’t be her. Weiss had watched her die, Ruby had witnessed it first hand and given her the sword. There was a soft choking noise from nearby and Weiss heard the plaintive, disbelieving call.

“Penny?” Painfully familiar bright green eyes looked over the group and a bright smile graced her face.

“Darling, why don’t you say hello to your friends?” Pietro had emerged from his clinic with Maria, now that the danger was over, and Penny looked ready to dash over to greet them, but was suddenly knocked down by a swirl of petals.

“Penny! I thought-I thought.” Babbling tearfully and mostly unintelligibly, Ruby clung onto the front of Penny’s dress as the others approached at a more sensible pace. Weiss could hardly believe it, but the evidence was right here in front of her in all its freckled glory.

“It’s such a pleasure to see you all, especially you, Ruby. Could you perhaps let me up though?” Patting Ruby’s head, Penny struggled to stand under the weight of the still sobbing huntress.

“I thought you died!” Ruby continued to wail as Penny stood rather awkwardly until Weiss and Neo walked over to gently pry their girlfriend off the robot.

“I suppose she did, in a manner of speaking.” Pietro mused as he made his way over to them. “But once Amity Arena returned to Atlas, I was able to retrieve her black box, and with a bit of work…”

“I’m good as new and combat ready!” Penny announced proudly, planting her hands on her hips. “And I’ve been appointed as official protector of Mantle.”

“I thought I’d never see you again.” Ruby still seemed to be in shock over her friend’s return. To be honest, Weiss was also rather surprised by the whole affair.

“I have so many things to tell you I can’t wait.” Penny grinned happily, but her smile fell a little as off in the distance, another siren began to wail. “Oh, it seems we will have to wait.” Stepping back from the group, Penny’s boots began to glow and she hovered up into the air. “I can’t wait to hear everything!” With a small roar, Penny took off into the sky again, leaving behind a blazing trail of green.

“You going to be okay, Liebling?” Weiss asked her girlfriend quietly as Pietro started to say something and led them back to his clinic.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. It was just a massive shock, you know?”

“I’m rather shocked too.” Weiss admitted, pulling Ruby into a side hug. “But she’s okay, that’s great.”

“Yeah, it is.” They were so busy with each other, Weiss almost failed to notice how Neo had frozen and detached from Ruby’s other side.

“Neo?”

Before the pastel girl could answer, she was shattered into a thousand pieces as a pair of bolas flew through her and continued to wrap around Ruby. There were several yelps from the others as well, and Weiss felt something hard and thin slam into her back. The long rope wrapped around her, binding both her arms and wings tightly and knocking her off-balance to the floor.

Looking around wildly for their attackers, Weiss saw with mounting fear that all of the others had been caught by the ropes as well. All except one, as Neo shimmered back into view, her weapons drawn as she looked around for their attackers, pink fire burning in her eyes.

Twisting this way and that to look around, Weiss saw some uniformed figures warily approaching the downed group, along with several Atlesian Knights. Neo looked around, grip tightening on her weapons as they were surrounded.

“Neo, go! Just go!” Ruby told her girlfriend, who glanced down briefly at them, torn. “Neo!” With a small nod, Neo returned her attention to their attackers just before several more bolases came whistling through the air at her. Once again, Neo shattered upon impact, leaving the ropes to land uselessly on the ground.

“What the fuck is going on?! I’m a licensed huntsman, just helped to save people?” Qrow spat, wriggling around on the group to look for the group’s leader. A tall man approached the group, looking them over with a practised eye whilst the others remained on guard, probably worried that Neo was going to come back.

Weiss felt a chill run down her spine as the leader reached down and picked up the relic from off the ground, inspecting it.

“Let’s get this lot on the next transport, we can send out a hunting party for the escapee later.” He instructed his team, who moved with quiet efficiency, collecting up everyone’s weapons and hauling them to their feet. As Weiss was pulled up, she saw Pietro and Maria, unharmed but in a heated argument with one of their attackers.

“Doctor, I’d advise you to stay out of this. We’re conducting official business here, investigating the unauthorised landing of an unauthorised airship followed by the unauthorised usage of weapons by unauthorised persons.” The group’s leader told Pietro who glowered up at him.

“Oh, so the people of Mantle aren’t even allowed to defend themselves now, are they?” He asked, and the man shrugged.

“That’s a matter for you to take up with the General, Ace-Ops, move out!” The five people who’d attacked them then simply ran off without a word, leaving a fuming Pietro and a loudly swearing Maria behind as Weiss and the others were loaded onto a waiting transport.

“I’ll get up to Atlas as soon as I can to-.” Pietro called out to them, but he was cut off by the door to the transport slamming shut.

“Well, that could have gone a lot better.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! The Atlas arc begins at last! And we get a long awaited reunion and an unexpected one too! And we've got a bit of a shake up of things already, I'm sure Neo will be fine though, she can look after herself. So much fun awaits, I'm giddy with excitement! Also as will become the norm, I'm sorry!
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being super awesome. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being one of the bestest girlfriends.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	24. Chapter 24

The next couple of hours were something of a blur, mostly spent sitting in various holding cells and waiting to be processed. The entire system was automated, executed by Atlesian Knights, which meant all of Ruby’s pleas for them to be listened to fell on deaf ears.

Eventually, they were all loaded onto an airship along with another prisoner and took off for Atlas. None of them really felt like speaking, and the silence was only broken by Nora growling as she gnawed fruitlessly at her bonds.

Sighing deeply, Weiss shuffled around, trying to get comfortable. Whilst everyone else had only had their wrists bound, the Knights had seen fit to bind her wings as well, leaving them painfully crushed against the cables.

Even so, Weiss was fairly certain Yang was even worse off. She’d actually had her prosthetic arm confiscated, and had sworn up a storm when it was first taken from her. Now she sat in sullen silence, with Blake pressed comfortingly into her side.

There was some faint chatter from the cockpit, the first humans they’d encountered during the process, but when Ruby had tried talking to them, they’d simply shut the grate between them and the prisoner section.

“Why’d you send Neo away, Ruby?” Yang asked quietly, breaking the oppressive silence. “She could’ve easily taken those five.”

“I don’t think she could’ve.” Ruby replied softly, staring down at her bound hands. “Maybe if it was just her and those five, but they had all that back-up, and she’d be trying to keep us safe as well.”

“Even if it was just just those five against Neo, even with her… capabilities, I doubt she could’ve won. Didn’t you hear what their leader said? They were the Ace-Ops.” Qrow grumbled. Weiss was rather unsurprised that he seemed the most at home in the back of the prisoner transport.

“Who?”

“Ace-Ops are the best of the best of the Atlas Hunters. Ostensibly anyway.” Weiss rolled her eyes as she answered Yang’s question, remembering the calls she’d received from Winter complaining about them and their lack of oversight.

“I never met them personally, but James has bragged about them enough to me.”

“Wait, you lot had a run in with the Ace-Ops?!” The other prisoner who’d been silently listening to the conversation finally spoke up and looked over the ragtag group. “Ironwood must have it in for you lot.”

“They aren’t that big of a deal.” Weiss snorted, Though admittedly her dismissal of them was at least partly due to irritation at how easily they’d all been captured.

“Not that big of a deal?! The Ace-Ops all graduated top of their years at the academy and were personally selected by Ironwood himself to be his attack-dogs.” The man went on and Weiss rolled her eyes again.

“Did they get you too then?” Nora paused in her attempts to free herself and blinked inquisitively at the man who scoffed.

“Ha! I wouldn’t let them get me. I’m here because I’ve been speaking out against the Atlesian Government’s exploitation of Mantle and  _ General Ironwood  _ is trying to silence me!”

There was a moment of silence, then a voice came over the intercom. “You threw a brick at an airship.” Clearly the pilots were still keeping an eye on them, even if they’d closed the grate.

“It’s worth it if it gets people talking about our cause.”

“‘Our cause’?” Blake asked, raising an eyebrow sceptically, and Weiss wondered who’d want to be in a cause with this misguided fool.

“Yes, the cause for better conditions in Mantle!” Weiss groaned as she recognised the signs of incoming proselytising. “Lead by the charismatic, talented, lovely Robyn Hill and her Happy Huntresses!” Weiss was beginning to wonder if she could knock herself out on the airship’s bulkhead to escape the man’s continued rhapsodising.

“They were all top graduates of the academy, but refused to join the military and instead chose to stay in Mantle and fight for our rights! Robyn is gunning for the seat on the council that’s up for election, and when she gets it, she’s gonna put an end to Ironwood’s tyranny!”

There was a brief silence, then a small snort of amusement from Oscar. “Happy Huntresses? Is that really what they’re called?”

“Probably couldn’t get away with Robyn Hill and her Squad of Sapphics.” Yang added with a snicker.

“You may be making fun, but they’re at least trying to make a difference!” The man huffed irritably, and Weiss was sure she’d hurt herself if she rolled her eyes any harder.

“Emphasis on trying. If you think just a single seat on the council will effect any real change, you’re living in a fantasy.” She sniped, Blake nodding along with her. “She’ll be opposed at every point. Anything she tries to push for will be voted down.” It had taken Weiss a while, but she’d come around on Blake’s points about working within a system and how ineffectual it could be.

“Humph.” The man responded eloquently and turned away from Weiss pointedly to look out the window. Weiss saw his eyes widen in the reflection and she hastily craned her neck to look out the window as well. “This isn’t the police station.” The man muttered, sounding legitimately worried now.

“Atlas Academy.” Weiss spoke quietly, watching as they swooped down towards the foot of the tall tower she had just about been able to see from her bedroom window back at Schnee Manor.

“I guess we’re gonna get to see James after all.”

The airship came down to land on one of the many landing pads which surrounded the base of the main building and after a brief pause, the rear doors opened to reveal a large contingent of guards waiting for them, lined up and forming a corridor for them to walk down.

Nervously, Ruby got up and led the way out of the transport, the other prisoner remaining seated and watching in disbelief as the group all climbed out of the airship. They were led up to a door into the tower and along a few corridors before being filed into a large elevator.

“So, what do we do?” Ren intoned softly, so as not to be overheard by the guards accompanying them.

“I’m not sure, but I think we should be careful about what we say.” Ruby muttered to the group as a whole and they all nodded subtly.

“We’ll follow your lead.” Ruby flashed Blake a grateful smile, but Weiss caught a glimpse of it slipping back into a frown as she turned away. Eventually the lift came to a halt and they were shepherded out into a corridor, then to the right and down some steps into a large round room. Walking in ahead of them from another corridor perpendicular to their own was General Ironwood, accompanied by Winter and Penny.

Weiss had to suppress a small gasp at the sight of Winter. The screens down in Mantle did not do her wings justice. In much the same way that Winter was taller than Weiss, her wings were accordingly larger and more majestic. It felt oddly right to see her sister with her wings out in the open instead of bound beneath her clothing.

“You’re here!” Weiss’ contemplation of Winter’s wings was interrupted by a small cheer from Penny, who, by her genuine grin, hadn’t seemed to have noticed that they were bound. Penny’s greeting also caught the attention of Ironwood and Winter, who both turned around to look at the group and both did a double take at the sight of them.

“Weiss?” Winter asked, momentarily stunned by the appearance of her sister, but before anything else could be said, they were interrupted by a loud cough from Nora.

“Any chance we could get a hand with these?” She waved her bound hands in front of Winter, who’s eyes widened as she took in the state of the group and her sister’s bound wings in particular before narrowing her eyes at the guards.

“Take those off them.” She snapped at the guards who exchanged confused glances. “Now!” With a flurry of movement, the guards hastily started releasing the group and collecting up the cables. Once her wings were freed, Weiss immediately flexed her wings out feeling the joints pop a little after having been bound for so long. She could almost feel her sister’s gaze upon her wing ornaments, which had thankfully been left alone when they’d been arrested.

“Please, come in.” Ironwood gestured for them all to follow him into his office, and they all did so, spreading out once they were in the room. Ironwood settled in a chair behind his desk whilst Penny and Winter flanked him. “It is so good to see you all again.”

Ironwood looked tired and more than a little haggard, his beard uneven and most likely the product of not bothering to shave than any real desire to grow a beard, not that Weiss could really think of why someone would even want to grow one in the first place.

“Yeah, the welcome party really conveyed that.” Yang snarked. She may have been freed, but her arm was nowhere to be seen, and she waved the stump irritably at Ironwood, who blanched just a little before hastily typing something on his scroll.

“Yes, I’m sorry about the rather heavy handed way you were treated by my operatives.” He sighed and steepled his fingers. 

“Heavy-handed is one way of putting it. Unfortunately it’s had some unintended consequences.” Ironwood raised an eyebrow at Qrow’s statement. “We’ll explain in a bit.”

“You must understand, a rogue airship entering our airspace raised several red flags. It could have been stolen.” Ironwood justified and Ruby started shuffling awkwardly on the spot.

“Oh, yeah, funny story. It kind of, um, was. Stolen that is.” Ruby chuckled apologetically. “Oh and you might be receiving a bill from the Argus base for repairs to their giant robot thing.” There was a small sigh from Ironwood, though Weiss was fairly certain she saw the corner of his mouth quirk up just a little. Winter, on the other hand…

“Stolen?! What were you thinking?!” Winter stalked out from behind the desk and approached Weiss, her wings flaring. “You could’ve been shot down! Do you have any idea how unbelievably irrespons-.”

Weiss cut off her sister by lunging forward and wrapping her in a hug. It had been so long since she’d seen her and she happily wrapped her wings around Winter, despite her annoyance at her. “I’m sorry I worried you, Winter. But we did what we had to do.” She mumbled into Winter’s uniform and felt a shiver of happiness as Winter reciprocated the hug with her own wings.

“I suppose I understand.” She mumbled, but Weiss felt her look over and glare at Qrow. “But I cannot believe you allowed this to happen, Qrow. Actually on second thoughts, i can definitely believe you’d allow them to do something this foolish.”

“Hey, this is all on them, not me.” Qrow pointed out as Winter released Weiss and moved back to stand by the General. “And I’d like to see you try to stop this lot from doing something once they’ve got their mind set on it.” Weiss allowed herself a smug smile at the veiled compliment. “Speaking of, we’ve got some important information for you that’s… confidential.”

“Oh, is it about the relics?” Penny chirped helpfully and Weiss blinked nonplussed, only to be shocked further as Winter chipped in.

“Or perhaps the Winter Maiden?” Nobody spoke for a moment, and instead stared at the three behind the desk.

“You told them?” Qrow asked incredulously. Ironwood didn’t answer, instead he reached into his desk and withdrew the relic of knowledge, placing it upon his desk. Weiss felt a small bit of relief that the relic was reasonably safe, at the very least it didn’t appear to be in Salem’s hands.

“After Beacon, I started working on a new plan. With Ozpin gone, I needed people I could trust, so yes, I told them, and my Ace-Ops too. And I am very glad you’re all here. With this and your help, I believe we can finally turn the tide against Salem. Oz… he did a good job of holding her back, keeping victory out of her grasp. But she’s kept coming back stronger, and she will keep doing so unless we destroy her.” Weiss shot a glance over at Ruby, wondering if she was going to tell Ironwood what they’d learned, but instead she asked.

“What about the Atlas Relic?”

“You mean the Staff of Creation?” Ironwood asked in surprise, and Ruby nodded.

“It’s still locked up, safe in the vault.” Penny informed them proudly, still smiling cheerfully.

“And the Winter Maiden?” Qrow asked.

“She’s in a stable condition.”

“That doesn’t exactly sound promising.” Yang muttered, her mutinous glare quelled a little by a look from Qrow.

“She’s not exactly a spring chicken.” He explained as Ironwood continued.

“I know this looks bad.”

“You can say that again.” Nora hissed to her boyfriends, who’d remained tactfully silent throughout the proceedings.

“Recalling my military, the embargo... I know I mustn’t look like the most trustworthy person right now.”

“Then why continue?” Blake interrupted, looking up at Ironwood with narrowed eyes.

“I needed to ensure Salem can’t infiltrate Atlas, and I wanted my military here so they could protect my people.”

“By oppressing them?” Pushing forward, Nora glared at the General. “By making everyone hate you?”

“That is a price I’m willing to pay.” Ironwood’s tone was level. and he met Nora’s angry gaze evenly. “I need you to trust me, I have a plan.” Reaching out, he pressed a button on his desk and stood up to walk around it. As he did so, the door to the room locked and shutters rolled down the windows, plunging the room into darkness.

A platform rose out of the floor in the centre of the room and became a table, which Ironwood approached. “Ozpin believed that the best way to fight Salem was to do it in secret, from the shadows. Whether that was the right choice or not isn’t for me to say. But after the Fall, it’s become clear we need a new approach.”

“So what do you suggest?” Qrow asked, and Ironwood chuckled, pressing a button on the table. A bright hologram appeared above it, a hovering wireframe of Amity Colosseum.

“After the tower at Beacon fell, it became apparent that our current communication system was outdated. Amity was built to bring the Kingdoms together, and it will do again. It’s rather poetic, actually.” He pressed another button and the hologram shifted, the colosseum now having an antenna atop it. Weiss looked up at it curiously, trying to work out what Ironwood’s plan was exactly.

“Isn’t it ingenious?” Penny chirped excitedly, having moved over to Ruby’s side where she bounced excitedly. “Instead of just rebuilding Beacon’s tower, we’re going to replace it with this new one atop Amity and re-establish global communications.”

“But how?” Weiss asked, running through in her head how this could possibly work.

“We intend to launch the tower high into the atmosphere, into a low orbit. Our scientists believe we can create some sort of satellite, out of reach of the Grimm and Salem and capable of maintaining global communications.” Winter explained to her sister, looking up at the hologram with undisguised pride. Weiss had to agree with Penny, it was ingenious, if they could get it to work that is, and she wasn’t entirely sure how they intended to perform maintenance on it later on.

But those were concerns for later on, and Qrow was speaking again. “James, you didn’t need the entire military for this. What else do you have planned?”

“I need the military here for when I tell the people about Salem.” The simplicity with which Ironwood said this belied its gravity and everyone stared at him.

“You need them to help keep the peace.” Ruby spoke as she began to piece together the plan.

“Panic will be inevitable, and that will bring Grimm. But we will be ready, and once Atlas is prepared for the fight ahead, I shall use Amity Tower to tell the entire world.” weiss felt something constrict around her heart.

“But, there’ll be mass panic! Grimm everywhere!” She protested but Winter stepped in smoothly.

“And Atlas will be there to assist.” She tried to reassure Weiss, but she didn’t feel so reassured.

“Atlas will be there to save everyone, huh, James?” The General sighed, pressing another button on the table, turning off the hologram and returning the room to its previous state.

“Trying to hide the truth from the world will eventually kill us all.” He stated firmly, turning back to his desk. Something in his words resonated with Weiss, reminded her of standing in the snow after the train crash and after one too many secrets.

“Oz spent his whole life, many lives, keeping this a secret.”

“Without him to guide us, all I can use is my best judgement.” Oscar fidgeted uncomfortably, and Ironwood seemed to hear the noise as he looked over his shoulder at the boy. “Is something the matter?”

“Well… Ozpin isn’t exactly gone.” Oscar admitted and Ironwood raised an eyebrow, silently asking for an explanation.

“Oscar here, he’s kinda the new Oz.” Qrow filled the General in. “And before you ask, yes, he really is called Oscar.”

“Oz?” Ironwood suddenly broke into a wide grin and approached Oscar excitedly, dropping into a crouch before the boy. “I’m so glad you’re here. We-.” He was interrupted, however, by Oscar raising his hands.

“He’s not here at the moment.” Ironwood’s face fell and he stood back up.

“I… I see. That’s not normal. What happened?” Oscar opened his mouth to answer, but Ruby beat him to it.

“We don’t know.” Everyone in the room looked at Ruby who squirmed uncomfortably under the stares. “There was a train crash, and ever since, Ozpin just wasn’t there any more.” It wasn’t technically a lie, but something squirmed uncomfortably in Weiss’ stomach.

“I see. That’s possibly the worst news yet.” Ironwood sighed, but Qrow coughed loudly.

“I think there might actually be some worse news than that.” There was a pause and a loud groan from Ironwood.

“I’m not sure how, but go on.”

“So, remember I mentioned there were consequences to your Ace-Ops heavy-handedness?.” Ironwood nodded. “You’ve probably read the incident report and know someone escaped.”

“I did. I currently have some people out in Mantle looking for her to bring her in peacefully.” Ironwood looked curiously at Qrow. “But I’m not sure how this is worse news.”

“That young woman is Neopolitan, former right-hand woman to Roman Torchwick.” It gave Weiss a small stab of satisfaction to see the mixture of confusion and worry on Ironwood’s face. She’d had this low buzz of anxiety about Neo all throughout this process.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand. Torchwick’s former right hand was travelling with you?”

“It’s a long story, but the most pertinent details are that she’s been working with the mini ice queen over there for quite some time now, and most importantly, she’s the Fall Maiden.” That definitely worried Ironwood, and his eyes widened almost comically. “So now you’ve got a magically empowered ex-criminal on the loose in Mantle who thinks her girlfriends have just been arrested by you.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, ‘oh’.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not Monday yet, but I've been pretty much grinding out the chapters and building up enough of a backlog that I can start posting a little bit more frequently which also helps since I've started yet another long runner so now people hopefully won't have to go too long in between updates. In other news, Ironwood realises he done fucked up. Neo loose in Atlas is definitely not going to go horribly wrong and have long-lasting consequences.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being hella adorable. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being so supportive of my creative endeavours.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	25. Chapter 25

“Um, I’m not sure if I heard that right. Did you say girlfriends?” Winter broke the long silence that followed Qrow informing Ironwood of Neo.

“I did. Ask your sister about it, it was her dumb idea.” Weiss shot Qrow a dark look for throwing her under the bus like that and sighed deeply before turning back to her perplexed sister.

“Ruby and I are dating Neo. I would’ve preferred to tell you when I introduced you to her, but it seems several spanners have been thrown into the works there.” She flashed another dirty look at Qrow, who tried and failed to look innocent.

Winter, for her part, opened and closed her mouth without saying a word, shock written across her features. Whilst waiting for some kind of response from her sister, Weiss chanced a glance over at ironwood and Penny to gauge their reactions. Ironwood’s brow was furrowed and he appeared to be deep in thought. Penny, however, seemed positively ecstatic and was beaming at Ruby, who didn’t seem to have noticed, all of her attention being fixed on Winter as well.

“But… But… She’s a wanted criminal, a murderer!” Winter finally spluttered out, staring incredulously at her sister. “She worked with Roman Torchwick for years!”

“Do you really think I don’t know that, Winter?” Weiss rolled her eyes as her wings flared unconsciously. “Do you really think Ruby or I wouldn’t have thought these things through?”

“I…”

“I trust Neo, and I’ve worked with her for months now.” Weiss set her jaw stubbornly.

“Also, whether you like it or not, she is the Fall Maiden now.” Ruby added, her tone firm but not nearly as strident as Weiss’.

“General?” Winter turned to Ironwood, quiet desperation in her voice, begging for support.

“It’s not ideal, but if they believe Neopolitan can be trusted, then I believe them.” Winter’s face fell, but she nodded in acknowledgement. “Her flight does pose some issues though. Are any of you able to get in contact with her?”

“We could try, but all our things were kind of confiscated.” Yang waggled her arm stump again.

“Also, I’m not entirely sure that would work.” Blake added with a frown. “If Neo’s anything like me, and given our respective backgrounds I assume so, she’s probably ditched her scroll so she can’t be tracked.” Weiss nodded reluctantly in agreement. She was fairly certain that if Neo didn’t want to be found, then no one would be able to find her.

“Perhaps you could broadcast a message to her?” Penny suggested, cocking her head innocently. “We could put it on the Mantle Broadcast system.”

“It might be worth a shot.” Ruby mused. “We’ve got to try something to get her back.”

“I hate to poke a hole in that idea, Ruby, but as far as Neo knows, we could be doing that under duress.” Blake narrowed her eyes at Ironwood. “It was a common tactic used by the Atlesian Military against the Fang.”

“One that has been phased out in recent years.” Ironwood sighed, rubbing his temples. “Is there no way you can think of to retrieve the Fall Maiden?” They all shook their heads, and he sighed again. “I suppose it is a small mercy that the powers are now in the hands of someone roughly aligned with us rather than with Salem.”

Weiss wasn’t sure how much she agreed with Ironwood’s statement. Then again, she was somewhat biased, given her continuing worry about her missing girlfriend, so she stayed silent as he continued.

“I suggest we shelve the issues with Neopolitan for now. We have other concerns, and as important as she may be, we can’t ignore everything in favour of her.” Weiss wanted to protest that they needed Neo with them, but again she didn’t speak, as there were various murmurs of assent from around the room, and Ironwood walked over to his desk and picked up the Relic. Weighing it in his hand for a moment, he turned back, walked over to Ruby and held it out to her.

“You’re giving it back to me?” She tilted her head in confusion.

“Consider it an offer of trust. After what happened with the Ace-Ops and the loss of one of your group, I don’t want you to think I’m keeping anything from you.” A small smile quirked at the corner of his mouth. “And I think it’s probably safest with the ones who brought it here in the first place.”

Carefully, Ruby reached out and took the Relic back, re-attaching it to her belt as Ironwood clasped his hands behind his back and addressed the whole room. “We must all work together to defeat Salem. If you’re all on board…?”

There was a moment of silence as many glances were exchanged. Then Ruby looked back up at Ironwood. “Tell us what we can do to help.”

A satisfied smile grew on the General’s face, and he stepped away and back towards his desk. “Good. There’s a lot that needs to be done in order to get Amity Tower ready to launch.” He pressed a few buttons on it and a holographic screen popped into life, displaying the group’s fight against the Sabyrs. “But first, we need to get you all up to our standards.”

“What do you mean?”

“All Atlas personnel are required to undergo a psychiatric evaluation before they can be cleared for field work.” Winter explained primly. “You’ve all undergone a tremendous amount of mental strain and we need to ensure you will be able to function on missions.”

“And your weapons will also need upgrading.” Ironwood gestured at the video feed which focused on Blake’s broken sword. “Whilst assisting the military, you will have access to the finest equipment our scientists can devise.”

“I’ll just be happy if I can get my arm back.” Yang sniped, earning a small wince from Ironwood. Whilst he busied himself with his desk, Weiss looked over at Penny. This talk of weapons made her wonder whether it was right for her to keep using Penny Dreadful. Did it really count as hers anymore with Penny alive and well?

Her internal debate on this was interrupted by Ironwood addressing them all. “We can talk more tomorrow morning about our exact plans. You all must be tired. Dismissed.” He settled into his chair and began talking quietly with Winter. Weiss wanted to hang back and catch up with her sister but the rest of the group filed out and she reluctantly followed.

As they descended the steps back into the round antechamber, Weiss took notice of five hunters waiting for them. Her eyes narrowed as she recognised the Ace-Ops, who were listening to one member, a dog Faunus.

“So that’s how I got banned for the  _ second _ time, and then-.” His story was interrupted by the leader, who noticed them all exiting the room.

“Cut the chatter, Marrow.” He instructed, stepping forward and standing to attention, the others falling in behind him. Ruby slipped up to the front as they approached the people who’d caught them. “I’d like to offer my sincerest apologies for the miscommunication down in Mantle. We didn’t inte-.”

He was cut off by a very tall and muscular woman barging past him. Grasping Ruby by the hand, she started shaking it vigorously as she started talking rapidly. “I feel so bad about it, honestly! If we’d known who you were, we’d all be laughing over a hot meal right now and-.” Yang seemed to take pity on Ruby, who was getting jolted around by the buff woman’s overzealous handshake, and interceded, freeing her sister.

“It’s okay, you were only following orders.” Ruby mumbled, shaking her arm out and trying to return some feeling to it.

“I don’t see how you couldn’t have had some idea of who we were.” Weiss grumbled, glaring at the Ace-Ops’ leader. “How many white-haired and winged Faunus do you know?” The man didn’t answer, and Weiss’ frown deepened as Yang chipped in.

“Or you could’ve asked us  _ some  _ questions first.” She raised an eyebrow at the Ace-Ops.

“Questions are for the weak.” The Faunus scoffed. “But, we’re all on the same side now. Not that I’m happy about it.” Weiss raised an eyebrow and leaned to the side to see the man’s tail wagging. He quickly noticed her looking and grabbed it to stop its motion, whilst Weiss’ feathers ruffled in amusement.

“We just wanted to say we’re sorry.” The leader cut in. “And that we’re looking forward to working with you. You might just be students, but you’ve been fighting just as hard as we have, if not harder.” Weiss noticed Ruby preening a little at the compliment and rolled her eyes fondly.

“And we’re also supposed to return this. I assume it’s yours.” A tall and pale man at the back held out a large plastic evidence bag containing Yang’s battered and scarred arm, which she accepted eagerly. “Normally it would take a while for evidence to be processed before it could be returned to the owner, but owing to the nature of said evidence the General felt it best if it was fast-tracked.”

“About time!” Yang fumbled a little with the bag for a moment before silently holding it out to Blake, who opened it up for her and handed over the prosthetic. With a quiet grunt, Yang reattached it and started flexing all the joints as the other woman in the Ace-Ops spoke up.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what you kids can do.” Something about the glint in her eyes made Weiss feel rather ill at ease, and the tall man groaned.

“Not everything’s a competition, Hare.” He grumbled with the air of someone who had to say this several times a day. The woman opened her mouth, probably to object, when there was a clattering from behind and Penny came down the steps from Ironwood’s office two at a time, skidding to a halt in front of Ruby.

“Isn’t this fantastic? Oh, let me show you around campus!” Grabbing Ruby’s hand, Penny started to drag her off.

“We can introduce ourselves properly at dinner.” The Ace-Ops’ leader said, chuckling a little at Penny’s antics. “You lot should take some time to get settled in.” With a small wave, he and his team left, whilst the rest of them followed after Penny and Ruby.

The robot girl led them back to the lifts, talking a mile a minute as they waited for them. “There’s so much I have to show you! The training rooms, the cafeteria, the classrooms, the briefing rooms…”

“Um, Penny, if it’s not too much bother, I think we’d all very much like to see where we’ll be staying first.” Ruby interrupted, and Penny’s face fell a little bit.

“Oh, well, since Atlas Academy is the best funded in Remnant, we have the best accommodations for all our teams!”

“So we’re staying in the dorms then.”

“Yep! Just like at Beacon!” Weiss tried to suppress a wince at the idea of things being just like Beacon. They’d all grown since then, all except Penny, it seemed. She seemed to be exactly the same as she’d been back at Beacon.

It was then that the lift arrived, and they all filed on after Penny as the gratingly cheerful A.I. asked them which floor they wanted to go to. “Floor 23, please.” The orange-haired girl chirped, and with a lurch, they descended a few floors.

“Floor 23.” The A.I. announced with its affected cheer that sent a shiver down Weiss’ spine. Penny led the way out and through a maze of curving corridors with doors on either side. “These are the dorm rooms reserved for students visiting from other schools, so you’ll have it all to yourselves.” She informed them all, pausing in front of them and pressing the panels on the side of two of the doors. “The General didn’t know what your sleeping arrangements are, so he assigned you to two four-person rooms, under the assumption you would split into teams.”

“Well, he wasn’t entirely wrong.” Ruby shrugged and led the way into one of the rooms as Jaune led his partners and Oscar into the other. “We can talk later, I would really like a nap right now.”

“Me too. See you girls later.” Jaune said before the door closed behind him.

“I shall fetch you when dinner is served!” Penny chirped before marching off and leaving Team RWBY alone in their room. It was similar to the dorms at Beacon, though the beds were set into one wall and the desks attached to the other. It all felt very uniform, practical and sterile.

In short, it felt like Atlas.

“You two doing okay?” Yang asked once the door was closed, looking between Weiss and Ruby.

“Why wouldn’t we be?” Ruby asked curiously and Yang raised an eyebrow.

“Your missing girlfriend? I would have thought you’d both be way more worried about her.”

“I am worried about her, Yang, both of us are.” Ruby answered, sitting down at one of the desks as Weiss nodded. “But I’m also tired and stressed, and I know Neo can look after herself.”

“We have to trust that she’ll be safe for now.” Weiss agreed, pulling a chair up beside Ruby and wrapping a wing around her. “In the meantime, what do we do about Ironwood?”

“What do you mean?” Ruby looked at her girlfriend in confusion.

“I know he seems on the up and up, but I don’t know if we can take that at face value.” Weiss explained, and Blake hummed in agreement.

“We’ve seen first-hand what it’s like down in Mantle. The General seems to have good intentions, but I’ve known people with good intentions before. I don’t know how much we can trust him.”

Yang frowned at this. “You’re both starting to sound like Ozpin.”

“He didn’t trust people who’d risked their lives for his campaign several times over. All we know about Ironwood is what he’s done to Mantle and that he arrested us the moment we set foot in Atlas.” Weiss pointed out. “I think we’re entitled to a reasonable amount of wariness.”

“Does that mean we’re not going to tell him what we learned from Jinn?” Weiss opened her mouth to answer, then closed it again, looking to Ruby.

“I… I don’t know.” She admitted hanging her head. “Yang’s right that we shouldn’t be making the same mistakes as Ozpin, but I also agree with Blake and Weiss about still being wary.”

“I think telling him is a bad idea.” Blake added, their expression set. “He’s tense, nervous. He’s come up with this plan to unite the world to defeat Salem. If we tell him she can’t be destroyed, it might crush him.”

“So what? We hide the information and let him carry on with what might be a fool’s errand?” Folding her arms, Yang raised an eyebrow at her partner, who shrugged helplessly.

“Maybe it is a fool’s errand, but I don’t think so. I think re-establishing communications across Remnant is a good idea. And if we tell him about Salem, he might abandon it altogether and isolate Atlas even further.”

Yang didn’t seem to have a good answer to this. Instead she sighed, walked over to one of the beds and sat down. “I don’t like keeping secrets from people we’re supposed to be working with, but it’s up to you, Ruby.”

The young leader didn’t answer for a while. Slipping out from under Weiss’ wing, she started to pace the length of the room restlessly.

“I don’t know.” She moaned, tugging at her hair in frustration. “I just don’t know what the right thing to do is.”

“Ruby, you just said you’re tired and stressed.” Weiss pointed out, getting up to go to her girlfriend. “We can decide what to do later. It’s been a long day and we could all do with a rest.” She looked to Blake and Yang for assistance.

“Weiss is right. We’ve been in several fights already today, we’re not in the right state of mind to make decisions like this.” Yang agreed, already starting to kick her boots off and lying back in the bed she seemed to be claiming as her own. “Blake?”

With a fond smile and roll of their eyes, Blake kicked off their own shoes, but instead of climbing into a free bunk, they slid into the same one as Yang and tucked into her side, earning a raised eyebrow from Weiss. Yang might have insisted that they were taking things slow, but the two seemed to have gotten back their previous level of intimacy.

Shaking her head, Weiss guided Ruby over to the other lower bunk, and with a gentle push, sat her down. Dropping down, Weiss began unbuckling Ruby’s boots, and above her she heard the distinctive snap of Ruby’s cloak being unclasped and set aside. With her girlfriend taken care of, Weiss took off her own cloak and boots before climbing in beside Ruby and wrapping a wing around her.

They lay in comfortable silence for a while, Ruby snuggling back into Weiss and doing her best to be the little spoon despite being the taller of the two.

“Do you think Neo’s gonna be okay?” Ruby asked quietly. She didn’t look back at Weiss, but she could hear the worry in her girlfriend’s voice.

“I want to.” Weiss mumbled into Ruby’s coarse hair. “I know that she’s strong, and more than capable of getting herself out of and into trouble.”

“But?”

“But I just can’t help but worry about her. We’ve never been apart like this… ever.” She admitted, pulling Ruby closer. “I hated leaving you behind on Patch, and I never wanted to repeat that, but here we are.”

“We’ll find her. Or more likely, she’ll find us.” Ruby reassured, turning her head to press a small kiss to Weiss’ cheek. Humming softly, Weiss pressed a kiss of her own to Ruby’s cheek and as the brunette settled back to rest, Weiss offered up a silent prayer to the gods to protect Neo. Even if they weren’t there to listen anymore, it made her feel better to do so. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that could have gone worse, though I get the impression Winter's not going to just let things lie. Even if they know Neo's perfectly capable, Ruby and Weiss are still gonna worry about her. Though maybe they should be more worried about Atlas.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being the best at it. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	26. Chapter 26

Penny fetched the group for dinner about an hour later and they were brought to the cafeteria, where the Ace-Ops and Qrow were already waiting for them.

“Uncle Qrow!” Ruby zipped over to her uncle and crashed into him with one of her signature tackles. “I missed you.”

“I was only gone for an hour, kiddo.” Qrow chuckled, but returned the hug anyway.

“Yeah, well…” Ruby pouted, letting go of Qrow and slipping back over to Weiss’ side. “Where did you go?”

“I was being shown to my room. They’ve got me on the same floor as this lot.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the Ace-Ops. “Then I spent a while trying to get Harbinger back, but they’re holding onto all of our weapons. James really was serious about them getting some upgrades.”

Ruby’s eyes lit up at the mention of weapon upgrades and she stuffed a hand into one of her skirt pockets and pulled out a mass of crumpled up papers. “Oh, I’ve got lots of ideas for that!” She rushed over to one of the tables and smoothed out the papers. “Oh, Yang! I had a thought about putting explosive rounds in Ember Celica!”

As Yang as a couple of the Ace-Ops crowded around Ruby and her drawings, Weiss drifted over to where the food was laid out. She hadn’t realised just how hungry she was until now. Grabbing a plate, Weiss piled it high with as much fish as she could find. It had been so long since she’d had Atlas-style baked cod. Weiss took two pieces for herself, as well as a large portion of boiled potatoes.

Lots of people claimed Atlesian cuisine was bland, and they weren’t entirely wrong, Weiss found Atlesian haute cuisine to be rather flavourless. But the simpler fare, cooked well? A symphony of flavours that Weiss happily tucked into. She was a little disappointed by the lack of salmon on offer, but perhaps another day.

“Mind if I sit here?” Weiss looked up from her meal to see the Faunus member of the Ace-Ops with his own plate. Weiss shook her head and he seated himself on the bench beside her and offered a hand. “I’m Marrow, Marrow Amin.”

“Weiss Schnee, but you already knew that, or at least I’d expect a Faunus to know that.” Weiss accepted the hand and shook it briefly before continuing to eat her food as Marrow chuckled nervously.

“I guess you’re still a little bitter about the whole Mantle thing, huh?”

“Just a little.” Weiss fired back, spearing a potato meaningfully and popping it into her mouth.

“Well, orders are orders, and I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised a Schnee thinks people should get special treatment just because of their name.” Weiss paused mid-chew and looked at Marrow, who sipped at his drink innocently, though his wagging tail gave him away.

Sighing, Weiss shook her head. “I think we may have started on the wrong foot. Can we start over?” She offered, and sighed again as Marrow tapped his chin in mock thought.

“I reckon we can do that.” He agreed with a grin. “So, what has the missing Schnee been up to for the last year?”

“Well, I decided to take a year out from education. so I spent some time travelling across Sanus and then spent a few months on Menagerie.” Weiss explained in a faux cheerful voice. “Then I travelled across Anima for a while, learned about a massive conspiracy to protect humanity from an immortal, foiled an attempt to destroy Haven Academy and then came here.”

“Woah woah woah.” Marrow nearly spat his stew out as he stared at Weiss. “Go back to foiling an attempt to destroy Haven Academy.”

“Didn’t you know about that?” Weiss blinked in surprise. They might have hightailed it to get to Atlas, but they had spent a couple of weeks in Mistral and she’d expected word of what had happened to have made it to Atlas by now.

“I knew about it, we all heard a few days after the attack. But you were there?”

“All of us were.” A voice spoke from Weiss’ other side and she glanced over to see Blake settling down with their own plate of fish. “As well as about forty Faunus who opposed the White Fang and helped reclaim it from Adam Taurus.” Blake’s voice lacked the same venom it usually had whenever Taurus was mentioned. Instead, they sounded almost remorseful.

“The report did mention a contingent of Faunus.” Marrow nodded thoughtfully, dipping some bread into his stew and tearing off a chunk. “I expect General Ironwood will be wanting a full debrief from you all about what happened at Haven in due course.”

“Oh, that’ll be fun.” Blake muttered into their cod. “Psychiatric evaluations and debriefs.”

“Ironwood’s got you all on psych eval notice too?” Weiss and Blake nodded, and Marrow hummed in sympathy. “It’s not that bad really. And it is for the better. Don’t want to send unstable operatives out in the field, do you?”

“No, I understand, and it’s not like I haven’t had counselling and therapy before.” Blake admitted, pushing a piece of fish around their plate. “But I don’t like the idea of someone poking around my trauma for an hour or so and then having the audacity to declare me mentally unstable or unfit for duty. They don’t know me or what I’ve been through and what counts as ‘stable’ for me.”

Weiss nodded in agreement with Blake. She’d been through a lot and she was still rather leery of psychiatrists and she shared Blake’s doubts that an hour would be enough for anyone to get an accurate picture of her mental state.

Marrow for his part simply shrugged. “Well, if it helps, Dr Shale is very professional and good at their job.” Neither Weiss nor Blake answered, opting instead to focus on eating more of their fish before it got too cold. After a few minutes of silent eating, Blake set down their cutlery and fixed Marrow with an appraising look.

“So, what’s it like being the token Faunus on the Ace-Ops?” Weiss nearly choked on a potato and she stared at Blake, surprised by the blunt, and frankly, rather rude question.

“I’m sorry, what?” Marrow asked, eyes narrowing at the cat Faunus.

“I couldn’t help but notice that we haven’t seen a single Faunus in the upper ranks of the Atlas military apart from you and Weiss’ sister, and she doesn’t exactly count, since she was in hiding when she was hired.” Blake said plainly, popping another piece of fish into their mouth and chewing it as they waited for an answer.

“I was not some diversity hire!” Marrow growled, his tail puffing up in anger. “I was chosen for the Ace-Ops because I was one of the best! Besides, I wasn’t the only Faunus tapped for Ace-Ops, but Fiona chose not to join.”

“She didn’t want to be a tool of an oppressive regime?” Blake snarked, making Marrow glower at them even more.

“I joined the Ace-Ops so I could make a difference. Faunus might be on the bottom and Humans complicit in that, but some of us aren’t out to solve systemic societal issues, some of us are just trying to live.” With a last snort, Marrow picked up his half-eaten food and left the table, settling beside Nora at another bench, and was promptly engaged in conversation with her.

“Did you have to do that?” Weiss asked Blake quietly. “We’re supposed to be on the same side now and working together.”

“I know.” Blake muttered, continuing to push their food around their plate. “I’ll apologise later.”

“Is something wrong?”

“I’ll be fine.” Blake tried to reassure Weiss, but the bird Faunus raised a sceptical eyebrow.

“Implying that you aren’t fine now.” Sighing and reaching out, Weiss took Blake’s hand. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”

“I…” Blake hesitated, staring into their food as though hoping it would provide the answer. “I’m still feeling… I don’t know how to describe it. Off, I guess, after everything that happened today. After what happened with Adam.” Weiss nodded in understanding. It was hard to believe it hadn’t even been a day since everything that had happened in Argus, and they’d pretty much been going non-stop, save for that short rest they’d had.

“I understand, to a degree, at least.” Weiss admitted and Blake looked at her curiously. “It took me a while to come to terms with the blood on my hands.”

“The what?”

“I did what I had to.” Weiss shrugged. “And it sounds like you did too.” Blake didn’t look too reassured by this, and whilst waiting for Blake’s response, Weiss looked around for Ruby, eventually spotting her harassing the Ace-Ops leader, probably asking to see his weapon.

“I don’t think I had to do it though.” Blake mumbled quietly. “If I hadn’t chased him, maybe we’d be free of him.”

“Somehow I doubt that, given what you’ve told me about him.” Weiss said flatly, shaking her head. “I’m not saying you hunting him down was the right thing to do. It was probably the wrong thing actually, given all the consequences. But putting him down, I think, was the right thing to do.”

When Blake didn’t answer, Weiss sighed and stood up. “Take your time, then talk to us. Talk to Yang, because I’m pretty sure she’s going through something similar right now.” Blake looked over at their partner, who was chatting amiably to the tall muscular woman. “I’m going to stop Ruby from pestering that man to death with weapons schematics, and get acquainted with the rest of them.” 

With a last pat on Blake’s shoulder, Weiss started towards her girlfriend, but paused for a moment and called over her shoulder to Blake. “Oh, and try not to alienate anyone else, please. We need all the friends we can get.”

* * *

The next morning found Team RWBY and their friends back in Ironwood’s office as he briefed them on the plan of action. Both Penny and Winter were present as well, flanking Ironwood as they had done the previous evening

“I’ve cleared Dr Shale’s schedule for today. It’s imperative that we get the lot of you cleared for active duty as soon as possible, because time is of the essence. In the meantime, I’ve made Dr Polendina available to you for upgrading your weapons and fabricating new outfits.” He eyed the ragged end of Ruby’s cape and Blake’s sleeveless crop top. “You’ll want something more suited to Atlas’ climate.”

“So what’s the plan once we’ve been cleared and outfitted?” Ruby asked, cocking her head.

“I’ll let Clover give you the full briefing, but the short answer is that there’s an old Dust mine to the north that we intend to use as the launchsite for Amity Tower. The process of clearing out the Grimm in the local area has already begun, but they’ve hit unexpected resistance. We believe this will be an ideal mission for you all to begin with and demonstrate your skills in the field.”

Ironwood looked around the group expectantly, but no one else spoke up. “If there’s no other questions, Penny will show you to Dr Shale’s office and her father’s lab. You can decide amongst yourselves who’ll see Dr Shale first.”

Briefing complete, Ironwood turned his attention to his computer whilst a beaming Penny skipped out from behind the desk. “Come on, then!” She chirped as she marched off, and they filed after her. Just before she left, Weiss cast a glance over at her sister. She hadn’t had a chance to talk properly to her yet and she wanted to catch up, make sure Winter was doing alright, but Winter remained behind with Ironwood, talking to him quietly.

With a barely audible sigh, Weiss followed the rest of the group as Penny returned them to the lift with the infuriatingly chipper AI. They descended a couple of floors and were led along another set of corridors by Penny, who explained as they went.

“This floor houses many of the non-teaching staff’s offices and workspaces. We have several engineers and scientists on the floor, as well as pastoral care.” She informed them, coming to a halt outside a door with a nameplate denoting it as Dr Shale’s. “Have you decided who’s going to go first? I’ll take everyone else to my dad’s lab.”

They all looked amongst each other, none particularly eager to be the first to go. Blake and Yang seemed particularly hesitant. “I’ll go.” Ruby volunteered, but Weiss shook her head and placed a hand on Ruby’s shoulder.

“I can go first, you’ve got all those ideas for our upgrades and I’m sure you’ll want to discuss them with Dr Polendina as soon as possible.” Ruby hummed in thought for a moment before nodding in acquiescence.

“Okay. I’ll see you later, Liebling.” She pressed a quick kiss to Weiss’ cheek and left her to it as the rest of them continued to follow Penny. Taking a steadying breath, Weiss reached out, knocked on the door and was met with a faint call to come in.

Opening the door, Weiss found herself in a spacious office, with bookshelves lining the walls, a plain desk and a comfortable looking chair sat in front of it. Dr Shale was sitting behind the desk, typing something on their computer and not looking up. They were well-dressed and looked rather young despite their already steel grey hair.

“Dr. Shale?” She asked, raising an eyebrow as they didn’t look up.

“Please, take a seat. I’ll be with you in a moment.” They said, continuing to type. Shrugging, Weiss made her way over to the chair and sat down. Unfortunately, though the chair looked comfortable, it had been designed to be comfortable for people without a large pair of wings. Weiss proceeded to spend the next several minutes struggling to find a way to sit that didn’t end up crushing her wings. All the while, Dr. Shale continued typing, not paying attention to Weiss’ plight.

Eventually, with a decisive keystroke, Dr. Shale finished whatever it was they were doing and turned to face Weiss. “Sorry, about that. General Ironwood’s sudden change of my schedule meant I had quite a bit I needed to take care of. Um, are you alright?” They asked, finally noticing Weiss’ oddly contorted position. “That doesn’t look like a particularly comfortable way to sit.”

“I’m gay.”

“Oh.” Dr Shale coughed awkwardly at Weiss’ blunt answer and straightened their glasses. “Right. So, as I’m sure you’re aware, I’m Dr. Shale. Given the wings and the white hair, I assume you’re Weiss Schnee.”

“You’d be correct.” Weiss answered warily. She wasn’t trying to be hostile, but the doctor’s whole demeanour set Weiss on edge.

“General Ironwood has told me that you and your friends all require a psychiatric evaluation to make sure you’re fit for active duty.”

“That’s what I’ve been told.” Weiss answered brusquely, and Dr. Shale sighed.

“Miss Schnee, I know these sorts of things aren’t pleasant, but there are protocols we need to follow. It’ll be quicker and easier for all of us if you cooperate a bit more.” Rolling her eyes, Weiss sat up properly and met the doctor’s gaze evenly.

“Fine. What do I have to do to get cleared?”

“Well, we start with some ink blot tests.” Dr Shale wheeled over to a filing cabinet and opened up a drawer. They pulled out some cards and wheeled back over to the desk, grabbing a large size scroll as they went.

“Ink blot tests?” Weiss raised an eyebrow sceptically. “Really?”

“Yes, really.” They tapped on the scroll then held up the first card. “What do you see?” Weiss looked at the smudge of ink and narrowed her eyes.

“A Beowolf.”

“And this one?”

“Nevermore.”

“And this?”

“Blood splatter.” They continued on like this for a while. Dr. Shale would show her a card and Weiss would say what she saw, getting increasingly bored. “Butterfly, puppy, Goliath, mashed potatoes.” She reeled off and the doctor continued to make their notes until they finally finished.

“Is that it?” Weiss asked hopefully as Dr. Shale picked up the cards and wheeled back over to the filing cabinet.

“Not yet, I’m afraid Miss Schnee. We’re now going to do some word association.”

“Word association? Now I know you’re just messing me around.” Weiss stared flatly at the doctor. “What diagnostic relevance does word association have?”

“It is very relevant, Miss Schnee. Your answers will help me determine whether your mindset is suitable for high stress situations.” The doctor explained patiently moving back behind the desk and picking up the scroll.

“But how?”

“I’m afraid I can’t answer that, Miss Schnee. If you knew what I was looking for, it could affect your answers.” Dr. Shale smiled politely at Weiss. “However, I can assure you that the Atlesian Military has been using this technique for years. It is very effective and proven to work.”

“Alright, fine, let’s get on with it.”

“Good, now then. Fish.”

“Food.”

“Fight.”

“Job.”

“Victory.”

“Certain.”

“Defeat.”

“Failure.”

“Light.”

“Knowledge.”

“Virtue.”

“Strength.”

“Loyalty.”

“Earned.”

“Atlas.”

“... Home.”

“Flight.”

“Freedom.”

“Weapon.”

“Inheritance.”

“Mantle.”

“Below.”

“One last one: Darkness.”

“Choice.” With Weiss’ final answer, Dr. Shale finished taking their notes and looked up from their scroll.

“Excellent. That’s all I need from you, Miss Schnee. Unless there was anything else you wished to talk about, that is, anything bothering you or the like.” Weiss wondered for a brief moment whether she wanted to share her issues with the doctor. Her continued doubts in her faith, her fears about Neo, the current state of Atlas, What Jacques Schnee would do when he discovered she was here.”

“No, nothing that I can think of.”

“Well, my door is always open if you wish to talk.” The doctor smiled pleasantly at her. “You’re free to go, and I’ll send my opinions along to the General in due course. If you could send the next one along...”

Nodding her thanks to the doctor, Weiss got up and left the room. Once the door closed behind her, she breathed a sigh of relief. That had been an odd session, though Weiss couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. It had probably just been the chair and the uncomfortable position she’d been forced to sit in.

Shaking her head, Weiss started down the corridor in search of Dr Polendina’s lab. Hopefully whatever Dr Shale’s tests said was good and she’d be cleared for missions. At least it would be something to do other than worry about Neo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone loves a good bit of word association, most fun you can ever have. In the meantime, we've got some lovely conflicts building and some new character dynamics with Marrow and the mention of his old friend. Such big plans for characters, big big plans.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and putting up with my awful grammar. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and keeping me sane.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	27. Chapter 27

It took Weiss a little while to find Dr Polendina’s lab, but after several minutes of wandering, she eventually found it tucked into a corner of the floor. Entering, she found it was a surprisingly spacious room with all sorts of tables covered in mechanical pieces and wiring.

Crowded around a desk at the far end were the others, Dr Polendina, and Penny, the latter of which looked up as Weiss approached and swivelled to greet her. “Hello, Weiss! I trust your session went well?”

“About as well as it could go.” Weiss grumbled, trying to put the frustratingly banal tests out of her mind. “Who’s up next?”

“I’ll go.” Ren volunteered, and pressed a quick kiss to Nora and Jaune’s cheeks before leaving the room.

“I’m never going to get used to that.” Jaune mumbled bashfully, rubbing the spot where Ren had kissed him as his cheeks grew red.

“Ren-Ren can get pretty affectionate if he’s in the right mood.” Nora chirped, trying and failing to wrap an arm around Jaune’s shoulder. “It’s really cute.”

“It is very cute, like lots of things!” Penny chimed in, but she wasn’t looking at Jaune and Nora, she was looking directly at Ruby, who was engrossed in several blueprints with Dr Polendina. Weiss wasn’t the only one who noticed this either, Yang and Blake seemed to have as well, and they shot Weiss looks of confusion.

“Yeah…” Weiss agreed, not quite sure what was happening, though she had a sneaking suspicion. “How’s the design going?”

“It’s going great!” Ruby grinned happily at Weiss. “I wanted to do some of these upgrades back at Haven, but I kinda got caught up in making Cacophony, but I’m really glad I didn’t now!”

“You are?”

“Yeah, now I’ve got Dr Polendina to help and all of this stuff!” Ruby gestured excitedly around the room at all the things lining the walls and on the tables.

“Please, Miss Rose, I told you to call me Pietro.” The scientist chuckled, ruffling Ruby’s hair.

“Only if you call me Ruby.” She fired back with a smile before turning back to Weiss. “Ms Calavera was right, he really is a genius! He’s got so many ideas for improving my own. Look!” Ruby grabbed one of the blueprints and eagerly thrust it in Weiss’ face.

“So I had this idea for Lilie der Rache where you could have  _ two _ rotating Dust barrels so you could combine different types, but then-.” Weiss zoned out a little as Ruby started talking about differentials and locking mechanisms, as she was rather distracted by the look Dr Polendina was giving her.

“That’s an interesting name for a weapon.” He said lightly, not taking his eyes off Weiss. Of course the Atlesian genius knew what the name meant.

“Oh, you should hear what Weiss named her sword.” Ruby chirped absently, oblivious to what was going on. “She calls it Penny Dreadful.” She immediately paused, having realised what she’d said and looking over at Penny.

The girl’s bright smile had become somewhat fixed, and there was an awkward cough from someone, breaking the tense silence.

“I had wondered whose this was.” Dr Polendina said, walking his chair over to a table, which Weiss now saw had all their weapons laid out upon it. Reaching out, he picked up Penny Dreadful and turned it over in his hands. “I did wonder what had happened to this. Most of Penny’s other pieces were accounted for, even if they couldn’t be repaired.”

“I broke my old sword, fighting a Paladin.” Weiss explained, eyes occasionally flicking over to gauge Penny’s reactions. “Ruby gave me that one to use, and it stuck.”

“No modifications made to it at all.” Dr Polendina mused to himself, clicking the transformation button and switching it to its pistol form. “I might have a few things that will work. I’ve upgraded Penny’s Floating Array since the Fall, and since this was a part of the original, I’m sure my modifications will work here.”

“I’d rather not.” Weiss said quickly, looking away from the slightly frowning Penny. “I’d rather keep it as it is.” Something uncomfortable was twisting its way through Weiss’ insides, the idea of changing her sword, if it really was still hers, felt wrong.

“Oh? But this tech is outdated now, we’ve made several vast improvements in the field in the last year.” Dr Polendina asked, directing his chair over to another bench. “I believe I’ve got some of the prototypes still here. I could show you…”

“Dad, I don’t think she wants it upgraded.” Weiss was rather taken aback by how forceful Penny’s voice was. It seemed everyone other than Dr Polendina was too.

“Ah, right.” Dr Polendina returned to the table everyone had gathered around. “Well, I’m sure we can work on your bracer, if you’re amenable.” Weiss nodded and took notice of how, as everyone started to return to looking over the blueprints and item manifestos, Penny started to back away slowly, and without saying anything, turned and left the room.

“Is Penny alright?” Ruby asked, clearly having noticed her departure as well, and Dr Polendina sighed.

“I don’t know, Ruby. Ever since I rebuilt her, she’s been just a little off, distant like she wasn’t before. I assume it’s trauma from what happened to her, but she won’t let me look at her positronics.” Removing his glasses, Dr Polendina rubbed at his eyes as Yang asked the question on everyone’s mind.

“Can she be traumatised? I mean, she’s a robot, right?”

“I see no reason why she couldn’t be. She’s a sentient being like the rest of us, whether she’s organic or not doesn’t really matter.” He replaced his glasses and looked at Yang. “It’s true her brain processes things differently to us, and I’ve tried to convince her to ‘forget’ exactly what happened to her, but she’s steadfastly refused.”

Weiss mulled this over in her head as Dr Polendina shook his head and returned his attention to his blueprints, but not before telling Ruby. “I’m glad you’re concerned for Penny. You were a good friend to her. I think she could do with more of those.”

Weiss felt a small stab of guilt at his words and she wondered if he knew about how she’d treated his daughter. Even if she hadn’t been openly cruel to Penny, Weiss hadn’t exactly been friendly to her either, and she’d thought she wouldn’t be able to make up for that, what with Penny’s demise and everything that had happened.

Maybe she could make up for it now.

“I’m going to see if she’s alright. I have something I need to ask her anyway.” Weiss announced to the group, stepping back.

“About what?” Ruby asked, head tilted in her usual adorably inquisitive way. Weiss didn’t answer, instead she inclined her head towards the table with all their weapons on it in the hopes Ruby would understand what she meant. “Oh, right.” Ruby smiled encouragingly. “Come back soon, Princess, okay? I want to talk to you about upgrading your bracer.”

“Sure.” After a moment’s hesitation, Weiss blew a kiss to Ruby before heading out of the lab in search of Penny. She only made it a little way before bumping into Ren.

“Ren! How did the evaluation go?”

“Alright, I think?” The taciturn young man scratched his head uneasily. “It felt almost a little too easy. I thought they’d ask more probing questions than just ‘what do you see in this ink blot?’.”

“I did too. It’s strange.” Weiss agreed, a small frown twisting across her face. “Maybe once everyone’s had it, we can talk it over.” Ren hummed in agreement before giving Weiss a curious look.

“So, why are you out here and not redesigning your weapons?”

“Oh, I’m looking for Penny. Have you seen her?” Ren shook his head. “Oh, well, I guess I’ll keep looking then. Thanks anyway.” With a small wave, Weiss continued on her hunt for the orange-haired girl.

She eventually found Penny standing and waiting outside the lift. “Penny, there you are.” The girl jumped a little at the call and spun around to face Weiss.

“Oh, Weiss, I wasn’t expecting you.” The Faunus winced at the implication, unintentional as it might be.

“I wanted to make sure you were okay. You left without really saying anything.”

“I’m fine, Weiss, thank you for your concern.” Penny gave her a small smile that was so genuine Weiss couldn’t help but return it, though a little worm of guilt threaded through it.

“I also wanted to ask you something, in private.”

“Oh.” Penny cocked her head, her smile fading away. “If you want to, then sure.”

“Do you know where we can go, then?” Penny nodded and took Weiss’ hand, surprising her as she was led back into the maze of corridors and to a room which had no nameplate. Pressing her hand to the access panel, Penny closed her eyes for a moment, the door opened.

“This room is technically out of order and should remain locked.” Penny confessed as she walked inside and Weiss followed her in.

“I’m sure Ruby would be glad you’re still breaking rules.” Weiss chuckled and almost missed how Penny flinched at that.

“She probably would be, yes.” Penny’s smile was back in place now and Weiss thought for a moment that she was imagining things. “So what was it you wanted to ask?”

“I…” Weiss paused, trying to think how best to phrase this. “Do you want me to stop using your old sword?”

“Why would I?” Penny cocked her head curiously.

“It doesn’t feel right…” Weiss shuffled awkwardly. “I stuck with using Penny Dreadful in your memory, it’s how my sect remembers the fallen. But since you’re not dead, it doesn’t feel right.”

“You should keep using it.” Penny said firmly, eyes flashing a little. “Please.”

Weiss blinked, confused by Penny’s insistence. She’d expected Penny to possibly wave it off or tell her not to worry about it. This ardent support of her usage of Penny Dreadful was the last push Weiss needed to keep digging. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“But Penny, don’t you find it weird for me to wield a weapon in your memory?” Weiss probed, trying to be as subtle as she could.

“I don’t think it’s weird.” Penny reassured Weiss, but her smile felt rather fixed, almost mechanical.

“Is everything okay, Penny? You seem off.” Weiss pressed again and Penny nodded rapidly.

“Of course! Why would you think things weren’t?” Penny’s smile became even more forced, and Weiss could definitely hear a tremor there now.

“Penny, I know I wasn’t the nicest to you before, but I want to make up for that. So please, talk to me.” There was a small choking noise from Penny, who walked over to the back of the room and stared at the wall.

Weiss wasn’t sure if this was the right thing to do or not, but she approached Penny anyway, speaking softly. “Penny, you can talk to me.” There was a moment of silence, then she turned back to Weiss and mumbled something inaudible.

“Penny? What did you say? What’s wrong?” Weiss asked in concern. As if waiting for this, the robotic girl’s head lolled down and she started trembling.

“Please, don’t call me that.” She spoke softly, and Weiss thought she’d never heard anyone’s voice so broken.

“Don’t call you what, Penny?” Weiss was getting very worried now.

“Penny. I’m not her. I’m not Penny!” The orange haired girl shrieked, her voice suddenly loud as her head snapped up to stare Weiss in the eye. The white-haired Faunus was sure that if the robotic girl could cry, tears would be streaking down her face.

“But- but how?” Weiss couldn’t help but just keep asking questions. “Dr Polendina said he rebuilt you.”

“I have Penny’s memories. But that’s all they are. Memories.” Penny said, slumping back against the wall and sliding down to the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees. “I’m not the girl you knew. She died back in that arena, and now I have to pretend to be her.”

“But Pe-.” Weiss caught herself and hastily continued. “Why are you telling me this, why not tell your father?”

“He was devastated when my sister died. How could I tell him that she’s really gone for good? Father, Ironwood, Ruby. They all need me to be Penny. I can’t take that away from them. Even if it means I can’t be me, whoever that is.”

Tentatively, Weiss approached the tearlessly sobbing girl and sat down beside her. “Is there something else you’d rather I called you?” Not-Penny shook her head.

“It’d be easier if you keep calling me Penny.”

“But you don’t want that.” Weiss pointed out and Not-Penny just shrugged.

“It’ll mean you won’t slip up in front of anyone.” Not-Penny did have a point there, and Weiss nodded in reluctant agreement.

“I’m not quite sure I understand how this works.” Weiss said, hoping what she was going to ask wasn’t going to offend or upset Not-Penny any further. “You say you have Penny’s memories, but you’re not her, could you explain it to me?”

“I’m a completely new body. No piece of my sister was used in my construction. Her aura died with her so I don’t have the same soul as her. All that remains is her memories, which were uploaded into me.” Not-Penny elaborated, her voice dull with sadness. “And even with those, I don’t think like her, even if I have all her experiences. I just… I don’t feel like Penny. I don’t know who I feel like, but it’s not like my sister.” 

“Oh…” Weiss wasn’t sure what else she could say to comfort Not-Penny, so she reached out slowly and patted her on the shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.” Not-Penny mumbled, voice still hitching a little from her dry sobs. “It felt good to be able to tell someone, even if I feel bad about burdening you with it.”

“You don’t want me to tell anyone, do you?” Weiss deduced quickly and Not-Penny nodded.

“Please, they can’t know. They need Penny, not me.” Not-Penny looked pleadingly into Weiss’ eyes. “It’s her they want. I don’t matter.”

“You’re perfectly willing to just pretend to be Penny, even at the expense of yourself?” Weiss tried her best to sound neutral, but she could tell some of her distaste for the idea slipped into her tone.

“It’s what I have to do.” Not-Penny shrugged, though Weiss could tell she also wasn’t particularly happy about it either. “So please, keep using Penny Dreadful. Keep her alive through that.”

“I will.” It still felt a little odd. Everything she knew told her that this was Penny sitting next to her. She looked like Penny, had her memories and acted like her. But at the same time, if she said she wasn’t Penny, who was Weiss to deny her the agency in her own identity? “I’m going back to the lab. Do you want to come with me?”

Not-Penny nodded silently and accepted a hand from Weiss to get up. Just before they left the room, Weiss paused. “I did mean it when I said you can talk to me, and not just because I thought you were Penny.”

“Thanks, Weiss.” Not-Penny tried a small smile. It was rather wan, but it was genuine, more genuine than her previous ones had been, or her sister’s, for that matter.

“And if you do decide you want to be called something different, please tell me.” Not-Penny nodded in agreement and opened the door, leading the way back out and towards her father’s lab. As they entered the room, they found that everyone had split off to various tables, and it appeared that it was Jaune’s turn to be evaluated.

“Weiss, Penny! There you are! I wanna show you something!” Ruby chirped looking up from a disassembled piece of Crescent Rose. Weiss noticed out of the corner of her eye Not-Penny flinching minutely, before smiling happily at Ruby.

“What did you want to show us?” Not-Penny stepped forward to examine the weapon on the table, and Weiss followed a little slower. It was just dawning on her now that she’d have to keep this a secret from everyone, including her girlfriend, even after they’d promised no more secrets, and Weiss had no idea what she was going to do about it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry! I've had this planned for quite a while now and I'm so so sorry for doing this to poor Not-Penny. I don't really have much else to say for this chapter, I'll just it speak for itself and await your anguish.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being awesome. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being the bestest girlfriend.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	28. Chapter 28

“So we all agree that whole psych evaluation thing was bullshit, right?” Nora spoke loudly from her position, flopped over Ren and Jaune’s laps. The teens had all gathered in Team RWBY’s room that evening. Once they’d finished with Dr Polendina and confirmed the various upgrades on their weapons, they’d all been taken to the academy outfitters, who’d taken their measurements and were now fabricating new hunter clothes for them.

The thought of finally getting good fitting clothes, however, wasn’t enough to distract Weiss from what she’d learned from Not-Penny. She still had no idea what she was going to tell the others, if she could even tell them.

“It was very strange.” Blake agreed, frowning darkly as they leaned up against the wall. “I thought things like word association and ink blots were only in the movies.”

“It did seem suspiciously easy.” Yang agreed with her partner. “I was fully expecting to have to go through the whole ‘I lost my arm and was abandoned by everyone I loved and fell into depression’ thing.”

“Um, what?” Jaune stared at Yang, who shrugged.

“It was a long time ago, I’m doing better now.” She said, sliding along the floor to sit at Blake’s feet. “Point is, If the psychiatrist wasn’t evaluating us properly, why?”

“Maybe it really is that simple.” Ren suggested quietly as he stroked Nora’s hair and pulled it into tiny braids. “None of us have undergone that sort of thing before.”

“Something still doesn’t feel right about it.” Blake argued, frowning at Ren.

“We may have been betrayed by Lionheart and by Ozpin, and Ironwood might be doing questionable things, but he’s been open about it and why.” Ren shrugged. “We can’t let ourselves get jaded by the past.”

“I agree with Ren.” Jaune added though he didn’t really seem to be paying attention. His focus was instead on his girlfriend and the awkward position of his hands on her.

“Ruby, what do you think?” Yang cut in quickly, throwing Blake a warning look as they opened their mouth to argue, eyes flashing.

“I don’t know.” Ruby mumbled, chin resting on her knees as she rocked back and forth. “I can see both sides, but I don’t know what to do about it.”

“We’re not asking for guidance, just what you think.” Weiss said quietly, already getting up from her chair and joining Ruby on their bed in preparation for comforting her.

“I… I don’t trust it.” Ruby said finally. “Everything that’s going on down in Mantle, it’s too much, and that doctor, it was all way too weird. Ironwood definitely wants us on his side and working for him, that much is clear.”

The others nodded in agreement, though Ren and Jaune seemed a little more reluctant. Then Blake spoke up. “I think I have an explanation for the psychiatrist being off.” They said hesitantly, ears twitching a little as all eyes turned on them. “Ironwood wants us out there as operatives under his direct command, yes?”

“Pretty sure he does, yeah.” Yang smiled encouragingly at her partner, who continued their train of thought with a little more confidence with her support.

“What if he always intended for us to pass the evaluation?” They looked around the group. “He’s got to adhere to the rules about ensuring the mental stability of operatives, but what if he got the doctor to essentially fast-track us, give us some bullshit tests so we’d think we’re still being evaluated properly and pass us without really testing us.”

“You really think he’d do that?” Ruby asked. She did not look very happy at this suggestion, but she wasn’t arguing against it either.

“I don’t know for sure, but given what’s happening in Mantle, I wouldn’t put bending the rules past him.” Weiss didn’t want to believe it, but Blake’s suggestion made a lot of sense.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean we can’t trust him though.” Ren argued, though looked rather torn as well now. “Time is of the essence, after all, and the faster we can get out there and help, the better, right?”

“I don’t think it means we should dismiss him as an ally so soon.” Ruby agreed, a thoughtful frown twisting her lips. “But I think it’s enough of a thing that maybe we shouldn’t trust him fully immediately.”

“So I take it we aren’t telling him about what Jinn said, then.” Ren didn’t sound particularly happy at the decisions that were being made.

“Not yet. We should also let Oscar and Qrow know what we’re doing.” Ruby stated decisively, looking around for any more dissent. “If Ironwood gets mad at us, we’ll just tell him that we’re justified in our wariness to trust authority figures after what happened with Lionheart. He can’t fault us on that.”

“He’ll probably try.” Blake muttered darkly. “He gives me the impression of a man who lost control once and will do anything to maintain it now.” None of them had much of a rebuttal for this, and they all sat in silence for a while before Ruby broke it, her tone forcedly chipper.

“So, what’s everyone’s plans for their new outfits?”

“Are we seriously going to talk about clothes?” Weiss asked, raising an eyebrow at her girlfriend.

“Well, I don’t want to talk about sad stuff anymore, and I would rather talk about weapons, but when I do, you kinda get that glazed look, so, clothes!” Ruby grinned toothily and Weiss rolled her eyes fondly, nudging up against her girlfriend.

“Well, I’m not really looking to change things very much. I rather like wearing my suit and your mother’s cloak. I might see about getting a haircut though, it’s been getting rather long.” Weiss tugged on a long strand of hair. She’d last had it cut back on Patch and it was starting to approach the small of her back again.

“That’s not a bad idea. Mine’s been getting pretty long too.” Ruby mused, blowing her fringe out of her eyes. “Anyone else want to come with us?”

“Yeah, no.” Yang gave Ruby a flat look. “No one touches these locks.”

“I might.” Jaune spoke from just out of sight from the other bunk. “A change might be nice.” His musing was interrupted by a loud whine from Nora.

“Nooooo, don’t cut it. I like it when it’s long.” She complained, and Weiss could hear shuffling from the bunk. “It means I can play with it.”

“Is that why Ren keeps his hair long?”

“Pretty much. I’ve always had long hair though, making Nora happy is just a fringe benefit.” Ren intoned, and Yang snorted and muttered something about fringe benefits. “Also, I quite like your hair being long too. I think it makes you look more mature and handsome.”

“Well, if it gets any longer I’ll have to start putting it in ponytails like you.” Jaune sighed, but Weiss could hear the smile in his tone. “Though I’m not sure I want to look handsome…”

“Oh?” Ruby perked up with interest and leaned out of the bunk to look at Jaune. “What do you want to look like then?”

“I’m not sure. Like, I used to want to be all masculine and strong and stuff, but now it doesn’t really feel like it fits me anymore.” Weiss could hear the uncertainty in Jaune’s voice and feel the excited vibrations of Ruby beside her. However, it was Nora who spoke next.

“So what does? Do you think you’d feel more comfortable presenting in a more feminine way?” Her voice was innocent enough, but Weiss had known Nora long enough to recognise when she was trying to be sneaky, and it seemed Jaune did too.

“If you’re trying to ask if I think I’m trans, you’re not subtle.” He chided gently, earning a small huff from his girlfriend. “And I don’t think so, so you can stop looking so excited too, Ruby.” The young leader pouted a little and rocked back into Weiss’ arms.

“Then how do you feel, Jaune?” Blake asked, distracting from Ruby and Nora’s mild disappointment. “You know we’ll all support you, no judgement either.”

“I…” Jaune paused, humming quietly as he searched for the right words. “I don’t really know how to explain it. I like being a guy, but just the idea of having to be masculine doesn’t sit right, y’know?”

“Not really, but keep going.” Nora encouraged.

“You’ll all make fun of me…”

“We won’t, I promise.” Ruby chirped, shooting sharp looks at everyone to ensure their cooperation.

“Well… I kinda like how Qrow looks in his combat skirt. Wearing that dress at the dance was actually one of the times I’ve felt most comfortable in my clothes.” Weiss blinked in surprise. She hadn’t expected this from Jaune. Then again, she hadn’t expected him to confess to her his questioning sexuality a few months ago either.

“Well, you know what this means, right?” Nora’s voice was brimming with excitement, and Weiss could tell from it that she was practically vibrating on the spot.

“What?”

“We need to get you to those tailors pronto before they put you in some trousers!” With a small yelp from Jaune, Nora leaped out of the bunk, pulling her boyfriend with her. “We’ll see you girls later!” With that she hauled Jaune out of the room whilst Ren followed at a more leisurely pace.

“Well, I wasn’t exactly expecting that.” Yang commented after a few moments of silence. “I feel like I should be kinda worried by Uncle Qrow being an inspiration to someone, but I’m mostly just proud of Jaune.”

“I’m sure the Atlas Military will be thrilled to have another guy running round in a skirt.” Blake muttered, a small frown twisting its way across their face.

“Blake? What’s wrong?” Weiss asked, concerned for her best friend.

“Nothing, just…” They sighed deeply. “He really had to choose Atlas of all places to discover himself.” The other three exchanged glances, all of them now worried by this.

“Blake, did something happen?” Yang asked quietly, raising a hand to pat at Blake’s thigh.

“...I don’t want to talk about it.” They mumbled, looking away. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to us.” Ruby said firmly, fixing Blake with a look. “Tell us what happened.”

They didn’t answer at first, their hands twisting uncomfortably together, then they began speaking hesitantly. “After I finished the evaluation, when I was coming back to the lab, I ran into a couple of guards...” Yang’s eyes narrowed dangerously at this admission.

“What did they say to you?”

“Nothing I haven’t heard before, mostly.” Blake’s hands stopped twisting around each other and instead one started fiddling with the bracelet Ruby had given all of them.

“Mostly?”

“They were commenting on how I’m just a dumb animal, the usual thing. Then they noticed my bracelet.” They twisted the rainbow cords around and around. “They… They weren’t exactly complimentary about my pride in my various identities.”

“Do you know who they were? Their names or something.” Ruby’s normally bright silver eyes had darkened noticeably to a cold steely grey.

“No, I don’t and it’s not worth it, Ruby.”

“Yes it is. They insulted you. We should report them to Ironwood!” Yang growled, looking like she was ready to jump to her feet and storm off to tell Ironwood right away.

“What good would it do? Ironwood is still one man, and have you looked at Atlas Military? We’re the outliers here.”

“That still doesn’t make it right.”

“No, it doesn’t, and I hate it, and I wish I could do more about it. But getting a couple of guys who insulted me reprimanded isn’t going to be enough.” Blake folded their arms and Weiss finally felt the need to add her two lien.

“Maybe it won’t change things at first, but we can’t just sit and wait to change it all in one fell swoop.” Blake kept frowning though.

“You weren’t saying that yesterday.” Weiss couldn’t help but roll her eyes at this.

“That was one drunk guy. Letting our partners beat him up for being rude to us really would have done nothing.” She pointed out.

“And these are just two random soldiers.” Blake argued back, crossing their arms. “And that’s not what I was referring to, I was referring to how you were telling that guy how Robyn Hill’s efforts wouldn’t work.”

“That’s because she’s working in a system that is designed to prevent change. At least here with Ironwood, our complaints will be heard.”

“And if anything is done about it, it’ll just be a token effort, like how Marrow got hired.” Blake sighed deeply. “Besides, this is all academic anyway, since we’ve got no way of reporting them.”

“Next time though.” Weiss insisted, folding her arms as well. “We can’t just let everything slide, Blake. we should be making some kind of a stand.”

“Fine. Can we just drop it for now, please?” Sighing, Blake slid down the wall to sit beside Yang. “Almost all we’ve done since we’ve gotten here is discuss whether we can trust people and the ramifications of our actions. Honestly, I’m tired of it. Can we try to relax this evening? We’re all together, getting along again and not fighting for our lives. Maybe we should try to enjoy that.”

There was a murmur of agreement from the other three. Blake was right, they’d not relaxed properly in several very tense days and this was possibly the safest they’d been since leaving Mistral. “What should we do, then?” Ruby asked, cocking her head and wrapping an arm around Weiss’ waist.

“We could see what entertainment the academy has to offer.” Yang suggested, having moved a little closer to Blake and leaning her head on their shoulder. “There’s gotta be something to do around here.”

“We could go exploring, I guess.” Ruby agreed, releasing Weiss and shuffling off the bunk. “We haven’t really had a proper look around yet.”

“I suppose not.” Weiss climbed off too, straightening out her clothes, and after a moment’s hesitation, reached out and took Ruby’s hand. “Are you two coming?”

“Yeah, gimme a sec.” Yang groaned, getting up and stretching herself out. Appropriately limbered up, she offered a hand to Blake, who took it and let themself get pulled to their feet. Weiss did notice, however, that Blake let go of Yang’s hand fairly quickly as the four headed over to the door.

Hand in hand, Ruby and Weiss exited the room and headed for the lifts, Blake and Yang trailing behind. Weiss could almost feel the slight tension emanating from behind them, the two walking behind them, close enough to touch, but not quite daring to.

Weiss respected their decision not to start dating again immediately after their life-threatening experience fighting Adam, but this dance of theirs was starting to get a little tiresome to her. She just wanted them to be happy. They were her sisters, family, and they deserved happiness especially in a world that still felt darker and colder than it had before they’d met Jinn.

The lifts took them down to the ground floor and the four began exploiting the grounds. It was rather chilly outside, but the heating systems were enough to keep things reasonable in their uninsulated clothes. They saw a few uniformed students wandering around, reminding Weiss that the new school year had started recently.

They got a few odd looks from the students they passed. Weiss was probably imagining it, but then again, probably not, but it seemed that their looks lingered on Blake’s ears, her wings and how her and Ruby’s fingers were intertwined. At least they weren’t openly being harassed like they had been at Vale, which Weiss found a little odd.

Ultimately, there wasn’t very much to do in the grounds except walk around, and they soon lost interest in that. Returning to the academy, Weiss and Ruby were talking about the proposed upgrades to Crescent Rose when they ended up bumping into two people Weiss hadn’t expected to see again.

“Hey, watch where you- Schnee!?” Weiss groaned internally at the loud squeal from the puffy haired Faunus who for some reason was still wearing her rollerblades despite also being in uniform. “Oh, wow! You made it out alive!”

Neon Katt wasn’t alone either, standing lazily beside her was Flynt Coal, though he had a far friendlier expression than the last time they’d met. “Good to see you weren’t Grimm chow.”

“Not for their lack of trying.” Weiss grumbled as Neon skated dizzying circles around them.

“Oh, hey, Blondie! You’re here too! Ooh, fancy arm.” Neon reached out to poke Yang’s arm but she snatched it away.

“I’m surprised you girls are all here now. I thought most Beacon students were enrolling in Shade.” Flynt spoke over Neon’s continued babble.

“Yeah, and there’s the whole border lockdown.” Neon grinned smugly at them. “Did you sneak in or something?”

“It’s a long story.” Ruby said hastily, probably sensing the growing frustration from the rest of her teammates. “One that we’ll have to tell you another time. We’re, uh, just headed off to see Pietro, I mean, Dr. Polendina about some things.”

“Oh, cool. Well it’s good to see you all aren’t dead. I dig your little wing things, by the way, Schnee. Very stylish.” With a wink and a grin, Flynt strolled away with Neon in tow.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting to see them again.” Weiss said after a few moments of stunned silence.

“Can’t say I’m exactly thrilled to.” Yang grumbled, glaring daggers after Neon. “I still haven’t forgotten how she called me fat. If she thinks I’m fat, I almost want to get her and Nora in a room together and wait for the carnage.”

“Yang.” Blake chided, jabbing their partner half-heartedly in the ribs and trying to suppress a smirk.

“Fiiiine, but I still bet Nora’s not gonna like Neon much if she says anything about her weight.” Yang snickered. “Shall we go see what else we can find?”

“Sure!” With a tug, Ruby continued to lead the way back into the academy. “Lots of unexpected reunions, huh?”

“Yeah…” Weiss agreed, Ruby’s innocent comment reminding her of what she’d learned earlier that day, and of how she still had no idea of what she was going to do about it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we've got a few plot threads being set up here along with the new conflict between Blake and Weiss. Meanwhile, Weiss still trying to come to terms with what she learned about Not-Penny. In short, things are definitely going to be fun in Atlas!
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being super awesome. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being super supportive of me.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	29. Chapter 29

“Ruby, are you sure that’s enough hair gel? I think there’s a tiny bit you didn’t get.” Weiss snarked as Ruby continued to carefully sculpt her hair into choppy peaks.

“Hey, I think it looks cool.” She protested, giving it one last tease before turning to face Weiss. “And I’m done now anyway.” Weiss would never admit it, but Ruby’s hair did look rather good. They’d all been officially cleared for missions that morning, and Ruby had decided that they should all get their haircuts that afternoon so they’d be ready to ship out the next morning for the mine.

Weiss and Ruby ended up having the most done in the end. Blake’s hair only needed touching up to restore it to its previous neatly bobbed state. Weiss, however, had a good several inches hacked off, so it now rested just at the nape of her neck, and she’d even dared to have the left side shorn off completely.

She wasn’t sure what had possessed her to instruct the hairdresser to cut so much of her hair off, and she was sure Winter would have a fit when she saw it. But it was pretty much the natural progression of her old habit of tying her hair off-centre.

Ruby’s was the most unexpected change though. She who normally was fixated on being seen as female, had her hair cut to an almost boyish shortness. Naturally, Weiss had asked why she’d gone for such a short haircut, at which Ruby had just shrugged.

“I let it grow out over the last year, but it wasn’t getting much longer and it just got in the way.” She’d explained as she applied her hair gel. “And we kinda need to start getting serious, so short and practical it is.”

After that, Ruby had tried to convince Yang to have her hair bobbed as well, to which the blonde had staunchly refused and even started whispering reassurance to her hair that she would never cut it.

The four were now in their room waiting for their new outfits to be delivered. Ruby, now finished with her hair, wiped off her hands and settled down beside Weiss on their bunk. Weiss was busy experimenting with the new scrolls they’d been given, testing out the new features. She had been a little wary, since when the scrolls had been provided, they’d come preloaded with all their old scrolls’ data. Whilst there was nothing salacious on there, a great many of the photos were still private.

“Princess?” Ruby asked tentatively, twiddling her thumbs in that way she did whenever she wanted something slightly embarrassing.

“Yes, Liebling?” Weiss replied, ignoring Yang’s stifled snickers at their use of pet names. Yang was just going to have to get used to it now they were all sharing a room again.

“Can I touch your hair?” Ruby nodded towards the bit that had been shaved, leaving a only short and fine fuzz. Weiss blinked in surprise for a moment, then inlined her head towards her girlfriend, who eagerly reached out to run her fingers over Weiss’ hair.

“Soft.” Ruby cooed, letting her blunt nails run over Weiss’ scalp and scritching her as she did so. “It’s all fuzzy and stuff, it feels so good.” Ruby sighed happily and continued to rub at Weiss’ side shave, pointedly not paying attention to how Yang’s laughter got louder.

“Yang, let them be affectionate, or else I’ll tell them what you used to do with my ears.” Blake chided, not looking up from their book as Yang huffed and fell silent. They had been immensely pleased to finally locate Atlas Academy’s library and discover that their new scrolls allowed them to check books out.

“So, what do you think we’ll be doing on this mission?” Ruby asked the group to break the slightly awkward silence.

“Probably some kind of Grimm extermination.” Yang suggested with a shrug. “Ironwood did mention something about the mine needing to be cleared out. Maybe there’s something too tough down there for the regular military.”

“That makes sense.” Weiss agreed, closing her eyes as Ruby’s hand lightly brushed her ear. This felt really good. She’d have to get Ruby to do this everyday from now on. “If it’s a mine, at least it probably won’t be a Megoliath or something.”

“Well, I’m not sure what else could be so dangerous as to require actual hunters.” Blake commented as they turned another page of their book.

“Whatever it is, it’ll be good to get back to what we started this for.” Ruby hummed in agreement with Weiss, ceasing her scritches and leaving Weiss disappointed and wanting more. She was prevented from complaining, however, by the door opening and a tall stack of boxes entering.

“Salutations, friends! I come bearing gifts!” Not-Penny declared from behind the precarious tower. Ruby jumped to her feet quickly and rushed over to ease some of Not-Penny’s load, placing the boxes on the desks.

“Penny, What are you doing here?” She asked as Weiss leaned out of the bunk to look at the robot. Not-Penny was smiling brightly at Ruby, and now that Weiss knew she wasn’t actually Penny, she could see a few of the very slight differences between the two’s mannerisms. To Weiss, everything about Not-Penny just felt more genuine, unlike Penny, who’d always seemed to be following a script.

“I volunteered to bring you your new hunter outfits!” Not-Penny explained, popping open the nearest one. “Look, it’s a new cloak!” She held out a far less ratty cloak than the one Ruby had been wearing for the last year. As Ruby examined her new clothing, the rest of the team got up and opened their own boxes to check out the contents.

Weiss had point blank refused to part with the cloak Ruby had gifted her, even if it wasn’t so well insulated for the cold climate. The rest of her new outfit was almost identical to her previous one, except for the addition of some better quality boots and a waistcoat. It did occur to her that she’d look a lot like Whitley wearing this. Her brother had alway liked his smart casual.

Thinking of her brother reminded Weiss of one of the reasons she’d been so apprehensive to return to Atlas, and she wondered if news that she’d returned had yet made it to Jacques Schnee. Then again, if he did know of her arrival, she’d half-expect him to already have plotted her unfortunate demise, as well as that of everyone she held dear.

She was distracted from her thoughts of impending doom by Yang pointing to a fifth case that remained unopened. “What’s in there, Penny?”

“Oh! Well, Dad thought that you should probably have some more time to get acclimated to your new weapon, given it’s rather unique nature.” Not-Penny gestured for Yang to open the box, which she did, looking in with an eager grin.

“Oh, now we’re cooking.” Joining Yang, Weiss peered curiously into the box and was greeted with the sight of a fresh bright yellow arm. “Was he able to get in all the upgrades I wanted?”

“Most of them. He said there’s a set of schematics in there too, but he did tell me that he’s put all the extra weapon functions you requested.” Not-Penny informed Yang with her usual chipper grin. Matching her enthusiasm, Yang fished the arm out of the box and turned to Blake, who had also joined them to inspect the box.

“Could you give me a hand?” She asked Blake with a self-satisfied smirk. The cat Faunus rolled their eyes, but acquiesced, reaching out and detaching Yang’s arm, laying the battered limb on the desk before taking the new one and holding it up to the connectors.

“You ready?” They asked, and Yang nodded, bracing herself as Blake attached the new limb. Yang let out a small hiss of pain as the arm clicked into place and she flexed all the joints, testing them. “How does it feel?”

“Pretty good. Gonna take a bit of time to get used to the fine motor controls.” Yang said as she continued to test the movement of the new arm. “Thanks for bringing it by, Penny.”

“Oh, it’s no problem!” Not-Penny tilted her head and beamed at Yang. “Always happy to help!” There was a small buzzing from Ruby’s direction. Everyone looked to her as she fished out her new scroll and flipped it open.

“Clover wants me and Jaune in the briefing room.” She announced to the room, tucking the scroll away and pausing. “Um, where exactly is the briefing room?”

“I can show you, Ruby.” Not-Penny volunteered quickly bounding over to Ruby’s side. “Just follow me!” Nudging Ruby on the shoulder and taking her by the hand, Not-Penny led the way out of the room.

Shrugging, Weiss returned her attention to her new clothes, pulling them out of the box and preparing to take them with her into the bathroom to try them on. She was stopped, however, by Blake and Yang looking at her with a mixture of confusion and suspicion.

“What?” Weiss asked, feeling just as confused as they looked.

“Are you okay, Weiss?” Concern laced Yang’s voice. “You’re acting… differently.”

“Differently how?” Weiss was even more confused about what was happening.

“You’re behaving, well, civilly to Penny.” Blake explained, ears twitching as they did so. “We were kind of under the impression that you didn’t like her and were kind of jealous.”

“The girl died and I use one of her old weapons to honour her sacrifice. I’m pretty sure I’ve moved past disliking her.” Weiss half-lied. She had moved past disliking Penny, but this wasn’t Penny, and she had none of the robotic mannerisms her sister had that had put Weiss’ hackles up.

“Weiss, she literally just walked out of here hand in hand with your girlfriend and you didn’t even bat an eye.”

“I told you before, I’m not jealous of how close Ruby and Penny are. Besides, I know they aren’t into each other like that.” Weiss rolled her eyes at Yang’s suggestion, but the blonde didn’t let up.

“Right, I’m sure Penny’s feelings for Ruby are strictly platonic.” Sarcasm oozed from her voice and Weiss sighed deeply.

“I’m reasonably certain that back at Beacon Penny and Ruby were just good friends.” Good friends who would never be reunited, Weiss thought to herself as Yang snorted.

“Maybe back then, but this is now, and who knows what dying and being brought back to life changed about her.” If only Yang knew just how much had changed. Weiss hated lying like this to one of her sisters, but she’d promised Not-Penny, and even if she was certain Yang wouldn’t mind so much, Weiss definitely didn’t want to put her in a position where she too was forced to lie to Ruby.

“Weiss is sharing Ruby with Neo.” Blake pointed out fairly. “Whilst it doesn’t mean Weiss can’t be jealous, it’s certainly an indicator for a lack of it.”

“I guess…” Yang continued to regard Weiss curiously, and she tried her best to not give anything away, keeping her wings as still as possible. “You might want to talk to Ruby and Penny about this though, establish boundaries and stuff, just in case.”

“I’ll think about it.” Weiss did not want to have that conversation with Not-Penny. It was already awkward enough, since Weiss already had no idea how to treat Not-Penny, without bringing in the possibility that she might have romantic feelings for Ruby.

“Well, try not to hurt yourself or Ruby when you do. She’s so glad to have Penny back, but I’m pretty sure you knew that already.” Nodding mutely at Yang’s statement, Weiss took her clothes and entered the small adjoining bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind her.

Sighing loudly, Weiss set the new outfit aside and stared at herself in the mirror. She didn’t quite recognise the woman who looked back at her, with the rebellious haircut and the eyes that were just a little bit too haunted for someone who wasn’t yet twenty. Right now, Atlas felt far from being the respite from all the hardships they’d faced getting here. It had only brought more problems and secrets.

With a long-suffering groan, Weiss looked away from her reflection and began to undress, shedding the scratchy shirt and struggling a little as she always did to maneuver it around her wings. As she continued to change, she wondered just what she could do about all this. Perhaps if she were to talk to Not-Penny, maybe she could convince her that pretending to be Penny wasn’t the best thing to do for herself.

Weiss dismissed the idea almost as soon as it had formed. Not-Penny seemed very set on keeping this a secret, and pushing her probably wouldn’t help at all. One thing she maybe could try to push Not-Penny on was coming up with a name for herself, because it was disquieting to keep mentally referring to her as Not-Penny.

It took a bit of gymnastics for Weiss to put on her new shirt. Still, it was easier than many others she’d had before. This one had actually been designed with her wings in mind. Pulling up the trousers and tucking her shirt in, Weiss took a moment to regard herself in the mirror. Dare she say it, but she looked rather dashing, Neo would probably start drooling the moment she saw her.

That was an issue in and of itself. It may have been only a few days, but there was still no sign of her girlfriend. Weiss had expected at least something or anything to indicate what she was doing, some sign of her. Hell, she half-expected to wake up one morning to find Neo in their room ready to bust them out. Either that or half the city would be in ruins. The bed just didn’t feel the same without Neo curled up beside them.

Contemplating her reflection, Weiss finally decided on leaving her top button undone. She wasn’t nearly so formal as to wear a tie, especially since it would clash with her cloak. Finally, she pulled on the navy blue waistcoat and admired how it outlined her figure, before rolling up her right sleeve in preparation for her upgraded bracer.

Satisfied with her new outfit, Weiss collected up the old one and exited the room. She was a little surprised to find Blake and Yang had also gotten changed whilst Weiss had been in the bathroom. Then again, the two had always been more comfortable about being in various states of undress around each other.

Their outfits looked far more insulated than Weiss’, as the pair were unused to the chilly climate. Both had left their outer jackets off, so as not to overheat in the warm building.

“Looking sharp, Weissy.” Yang smirked, giving Weiss a once over and nodding approvingly. “Looks like you’re just missing a proper holster for Penny Dreadful.”

“I’ll probably get one when I get her back.” After her talk with Not-Penny, Weiss had continued to steadfastly refuse to have the weapon upgraded, only consenting to having the powercell switched out for a fresh one and for the blade to be sharpened. Blake had had a similar sentiment regarding Gambol Shroud, asking only that the blade be repaired and the joint be coated with a hard-wearing gold finish.

“Well, I guess we’re all kitted out and ready for a fight.” Yang grinned enthusiastically, still fiddling with her new arm. “I’d love to take this apart and give it a proper inspection, but that’s probably not such a good idea right before a mission.”

“Probably not.” Weiss agreed. The last thing they wanted was for one of their key members to suddenly lose use of her arm and half of her weapons. “So, what do we do now?”

“I guess we’re waiting for Ruby to get back to give us the briefing.” Yang shrugged, settling down in one of the chairs. “Not really much else we can do until then.”

Weiss had been afraid of that, with nothing much to do, she was stuck with her troubled thoughts. Sighing to herself, Weiss settled on her and Ruby’s shared bunk. Hopefully, Ruby wouldn’t take too long and they could get back to doing things. Anything to distract her from this internal turmoil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just taking some time to get prepped for more combat whilst getting nice new outfits and haircuts. I wasn't a huge fan of Weiss' massive braid so we're going for something shorter and more rebellious. Poor Weiss though, caught once again holding secrets she doesn't want to and Blake and Yang are getting a little suspicious.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being absolutely amazing. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and always being there for me.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	30. Chapter 30

Weiss thumbed through the mission briefing one last time as the Manta soared to the drop zone. Yang had been right about the mission being a Grimm extermination, a Petra Gigas that had so far avoided destruction and had retreated into the mines they were using as the launch site for Amity Tower. Reports indicated that this Geist was smart, and therefore old, and that it had even managed to injure members of a team of hunters, thus requiring the intervention of the Ace-Ops.

“Weiss? You good?” Weiss looked up from her scroll at her girlfriend and flipped it closed.

“Yes, I’m fine.” She smiled up at Ruby as she took a seat on the bench beside her. “Just making sure I’ve got all the details correct.” Ruby hummed and nudged up against her.

“You think we’re ready for this?”

“Definitely.” Weiss glanced over at Blake and Yang, who appeared to be having a hushed conversation whilst Yang fiddled with her new arm. A little further down from them sat Harriet and Marrow, their minders for the mission. Jaune and his team had been assigned Elm and Vine whilst Qrow got to run with Clover.

“Are you okay with not taking the lead on this?” Weiss asked Ruby, remembering what Ruby had told them after she’d returned from the briefing yesterday.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine with it.” Ruby smiled. “It makes sense for Clover to lead the mission, he’s got far more experience. Besides, it’ll be educational to see how an actual Hunter leads a team.”

“I suppose, though I’d still say you’re the better leader.” Weiss reached out to intertwine her fingers with Ruby’s. “You know I’d follow you anywhere, right?”

“You’re just saying that.” Blushing bashfully, Ruby looked away from her girlfriend’s confident smile.

“I’m not. Wherever you lead, I’ll follow.” Weiss squeezed Ruby’s hand. “And I’m sure Blake, Yang and Neo would do the same in a heartbeat.”

There was a short silence from Ruby, and Weiss immediately regretted bringing up their absent girlfriend. “She should be here with us.” Ruby mumbled after a little bit. “Will we still be able to work as a team without her?”

“I think so? We functioned reasonably well without Blake whilst we were in Mistral.” Weiss pointed out, and Ruby shrugged.

“I guess…”

“We’ll be fine. Trust me, Liebling.” Reaching out, Weiss pulled Ruby into a side hug but it was cut short by a call over the comms.

“We’re getting close to the dropsite. Hare, get Bravo squad ready.” Clover’s voice crackled over the intercom and Harriet hopped to her feet.

“You heard the man, people. Let’s go.” She clapped her hands as everyone else got to their feet and began limbering up. “Hope you kids have half-decent landing strategies.”

Following Ruby’s lead, Weiss, Blake and Yang lined up in front of the side door, Yang putting on her newest pair of sunglasses. “You girls ready?” They all nodded in answer to Ruby’s question as she hit the button to open the door.

“Let’s make it happen, people.” Clover spoke once more over the comms as they readied themselves for the jump. Flashing a reassuring smile at Ruby, Weiss followed her lead and leaped out of the manta.

The cold wind stung Weiss’ face as she plummeted towards the ground. She could hear Yang’s gleeful laughter before it was swept away by the wind. Reaching out with her hand, Weiss concentrated for a moment and summoned a series of glyphs in her path. Tucking in, she flipped over to land on the first, barely losing any momentum as she used it to launch herself off and over to the next one. Bouncing between the glyphs until she was only about a hundred meters above the ground, Weiss leaped off the last one and snapped out her wings.

Weiss would be the first to admit she wasn’t sure if this was the best idea for a landing strategy, but after the last time she used her wings to slow her descent after jumping out of a manta, she felt a little more confident in using them.

And so, for a few moments, she soared. Flight might have been beyond her and her mostly humanoid biology, but gliding was perfectly feasible, as she slowed her descent enough to land safely, the downdraft from her wings flapping disturbing the snow as the rest of her team landed nearby.

A few moments later, Harriet and Marrow also landed, neither of them bothering to slow their descent in mid-air and instead bleeding their momentum when they landed and skidded to a halt a few metres ahead of Team RWBY.

As they all got their bearings and looked around, making sure there were no hostiles around, Clover’s voice came over the comms. “This is Alpha squad. LZ’s clear. Proceeding into the mine. Keep your eyes and ears open, I want an update if you see the target. Alpha out.”

“Okay then, let’s go.” Harriet gestured for them all to follow her as they approached the main entrance to the mine. As they did, Weiss noticed an overturned cart nearby with a familiar marking on it. Walking over, she brushed off the snow to reveal the SDC snowflake, and she sighed deeply. She shouldn’t really be all that surprised, though it would have been nice to know that this place used to be owned by the SDC.

Ruby had her arms wrapped around her and she seemed to be shivering a little. “Everything alright, Ruby?”

“It’s freezing out here. I know you said it was cold, but this?” She complained to Weiss who nodded solemnly. It was cold in Atlas, but that was nothing compared to the tundra. She thought she’d be better prepared for it than the others, but she could feel her wings sapping the heat from her body.

“Without heating or aura, the cold of the Solitas tundra will kill within a few hours.” She explained as she pulled her wings in tight to her back and moved her cloak to cover them.

“Well, that’s fun. Why would anyone even want to live out here?” Yang grumped as the four followed Harriet and Marrow towards the large cave that comprised the main entrance to the mine.

“Why would anyone live out in Vacuo?” Weiss fired back with a shrug. “People are stubborn and will live anywhere if they’re willing to put up with what Remnant throws at them.”

“You’re right about people being stubborn.” Yang grinned before walking after the two Ace-Ops into the cave. It was rather dim inside, though Weiss had no issues seeing, and it was marginally warmer being sheltered from the wind. They were unable to get very far though, as they came up against a very large rockfall that seemed to block off the tunnel.

“Damnit.” Harriet hissed under her breath before calling in on the comms. “This is Bravo. We’ve hit a bit of a snag. There’s been a cave-in at the main entrance. Can’t tell if it was recently caused by the Geist or from the original accident.” Blake’s head jerked up at the mention of an accident and looked around, wandering off to a side to examine a nearby office. “Either way, we’ll have to do a bit of problem solving.”

As Harriet finished her report, Weiss approached Blake tentatively with Yang following not too far behind. “Something wrong, Blake?”

“I think I just realised which mine this is. It was closed after an explosion rendered it inoperable. Many Faunus died in the explosion and the subsequent cave-in. Some were even trapped, and it was deemed ‘unprofitable’ to rescue them.” Blake closed their eyes and sighed deeply.

“How do you know all that about this mine?” Yang asked as something horrid squirmed in Weiss’ stomach.

“This was where Ilia’s parents died.”

“Oh.” Weiss looked around with new eyes, the unsettling feeling in her stomach much like the one she’d felt back in Mountain Glenn, only this time, far far more personal. “I think I remember now, how furious Jacques Schnee was at all the lost profits and wasted potential of the mine.” Weiss spat bitterly, now remembering peeking through door cracks, watching the man she’d thought was her father ranting on the phone.

“I wish I’d said or done  _ something _ .” She seethed quietly. “I almost wish I hadn’t forfeited my inheritance, then at least I could try to do something to make up for the atrocities my family has committed against my people.”

“Weiss, you were scared and vulnerable, I don’t blame you for not doing anything then.” Blake said gently, reaching out to lay a hand on Weiss’ shoulder.

“Society rewards complacency.” The two Faunus jumped and whirled to face Marrow who’d approached them whilst they were talking. “Humans benefit from doing nothing and if we do something, we’re ground into the dirt.”

Blake and Weiss exchanged a glance. After their short conversation with the dog Faunus at dinner the other night, they’d assumed he preferred to stay out of these issues, to not make such statements. “Although, it could be worse. They could be actively abusing us.” He shrugged. “Anyway, enough about complex societal issues. Harriet found a gap in the rubble we think one of you could fit through. Ideally one who can see in the dark.”

“Don’t look at me. I may be short, but these things take up a lot of space.” Weiss gestured with her wings and Blake rolled their eyes.

“I guess I’m going, then.” Blake drew their blade and joined Harriet who pointed out the gap in the rocks that they slipped into.

“Right, just a quick look around Blake, don’t want us separated for too long.” Harriet called after them and Weiss heard a faint reply before Blake switched to comms. “What do you see?”

“Mine carts, some debris, tools.” They listed off.

“Any Dust?”

“No, no Dust that I can see in the immediate area.” Came the reply, and the two Ace-Ops shared a quick grin.

“Okay, get back here so we can blast our way through.” Harriet instructed. Blake responded with an affirmative but it was cut off by a yelp, and gunfire rang out from the crevice. “Shit. Blake, stand back!”

Flexing out her arms, the metal assembly on Harriet’s back expanded out to cover her arms and fists. Rearing back, she slammed both fists into the rocks, smashing a path through. As she pulled back, Weiss, Ruby and Yang dashed through the gap to back up their teammate. Blake had their weapon out and was firing at a Geist, which started to retreat once it saw the others running into the tunnel.

“Get back here, you little shit!” Yang hollered, taking point and rushing after the Geist, only to stumble a little as the ground shook and a spinning bug-like Grimm burst out of the ground right in front of Yang. With a yelp, the blonde reacted instinctively, drawing back a fist and blasting the thing’s head off. Unlike other Grimm, however, the wound didn’t just bleed black smoke, but green liquid too as it flopped lifelessly to the ground.

There was a further rumbling and several more of the tunnelling Grimm burst out of the walls and floor of the tunnel up ahead. “I fucking hate Centinels, digusting things.” Yang hissed, cocking her fists again.

“Team RWBY, go!” Ruby instructed, already zooming forward with her semblance. Weiss and Blake darted after her, Weiss twisting the new mechanisms on Lilie around as she ran. Holding up her fist to aim at a couple of Centinels, Weiss pulsed her aura and sent a blast of super chilled wind at the creatures, icing them over and freezing them in place as Weiss continued her run. With a flash of steel, the Grimm were neatly bisected by Penny Dreadful.

A loud hiss nearby sent Weiss spinning as she dodged back from an attacking Centinel that drew back for another lunge. Without enough room to maneuver Penny Dreadful around to protect herself, Weiss instead swung out with Lilie der Rache and let its other modification do its job. A wicked blade welded on the outside of the bracer with a razor-sharp edge sliced through the Centinel like butter.

Looking around, Weiss saw Marrow leaping into the fray, firing his gun before hurling it at several Grimm, slicing through them and returning to him in time for him to bring it down through the head of another.

A pair of Centinels exploded out of the ground in front of Marrow as he pulled his blade free and twisted towards him, making their horrid chittering noises. The Faunus was unfazed, however, and simply pointed at the creature, snapping his fingers. “Stay!”

The Grimm came to an abrupt halt a short distance away from Marrow but they weren’t there for long, as Harriet ran up and grabbed them slamming them into the ground as though cracking a large and bug-like whip.

“This is Bravo! We found the target, but it fled deeper into the mine. Currently engaging Centinels.” Harriet reported to the other squads before continuing the attack on the swarm. With a vicious grin, Weiss rejoined the assault, flicking the barrels on Lilie around to Fire and Rock Dust and hurling a chunk of magma into a small group of the Grimm, where it exploded and showered them in molten rock.

Weiss was definitely enjoying these upgrades to her weapon as she rotated the barrels to Gravity and Lightning. With an unnecessary but fun click of her fingers, a black glyph spun into existence and dragged a Centinel into it, where it had several thousand volts of electricity discharged through it.

Glancing around, Weiss caught sight of one remaining Centinel at the far end of the tunnel, the rest slain by the efficient hunters. “One left!”

“I got it!” Ruby announced, levelling Crescent Rose at the Grimm, only to be knocked off-balance by Harriet, who sped past them, running just as fast as Ruby would, and punched a hole right through the beast’s centre-mass.

The threat eliminated, they regrouped with Harriet, Ruby bouncing with excitement. “Omigosh! You have a semblance that makes you go fast, like me!” She squealed, grinning widely at the older huntress.

“Very nice, though I think by your reaction times, I’m a teensy bit faster.” Harriet smirked at Ruby, who opened her mouth to protest the small jibe but it was interrupted by a beep from their comms.

“This is Alpha, we’ve engaged the target!” Clover called out. “All squads converge on our location.”

“You heard the boss, let’s go.” Harriet took the lead as they set off at a swift jog along the tunnel. Weiss did not like it here, it was far too cramped for her to perform some of her more acrobatic moves, not to mention she didn’t even have enough room to fully spread her wings.

They paused in their jog as Clover called over the comms again to inform them the target had escaped and was headed east. A moment was taken to orient themselves before they headed off again, finally emerging into a giant cavern. Dust crystals littered the floor and walls, casting a purple glow, and the whole chamber hummed with untapped energy.

“Guys!” Ruby called out from beside her and Weiss looked up to see Team JNR and their Ace-Ops escorts standing up on a high ledge.

“Everyone, use extreme caution. This cave is filled with unstable Dust. One wrong move and the whole launch site will be destroyed.” Vine informed them all over comms. Weiss had already been setting the safety on Lilie as he gave the warning, she needed to be particularly careful not to project her aura and accidentally set off the Dust.

“And us with it! I think that’s more important, Vine!” Marrow fired back at his teammate in irritation.

“I thought the Grimm was supposed to be in here?” Nora asked, and Weiss saw her looking around, then they heard a stone clatter to the ground from above and they all looked up.

Hanging above them from the ceiling was the Geist, now a Petra Gigas, it’s body studded with Dust crystals it had harvested from the chamber. With a loud grinding, it released its hold and came crashing to the ground, landing in front of them and towering over the squad.

“How are we supposed to beat it if it’s added Dust to its body?” Ruby asked, a slight note of panic entering her voice. There was no such hesitation from the Ace-Ops though. Harriet and Marrow rushed past them as Elm and Vine leaped down to engage as well.

The four worked seamlessly, only calling out for each other, not even needed to give attack names. Weiss wanted to assist, but knew if any of them tried, they’d only get in the way. In a few moments, the Ace-Ops had restrained the Petra Gigas and exposed one of the Geist’s limbs for Marrow to sever with his blade. As the arm rumbled away, a Dust crystal fell and plummeted towards the floor, and Weiss’ heart seized. A sharp enough shock could set it off and take the entire cave with it, something Marrow knew as well.

“Shit, Harriet!” He called out to his teammate, who ripped forward, grabbing the Dust crystal out of the air and cushioning its fall. Placing it carefully out of harm’s way, she ran back into the fray, and within a few seconds, the other arm was sliced off as well, sending another Dust crystal flying.

“Fuck!” Someone called out. No one was close enough to catch it as it sailed through the air. Harriet chased it, but she was too far away. Weiss prepared to shield her team from the ensuing explosion. Only it never came.

“What would you lot do without me?” A cocky voice called from above. Weiss looked up and saw Clover stood above them, holding the Dust crystal with Qrow just behind him. With a lazy toss, Clover threw the crystal to Qrow before hopping off his ledge to join the rest of the Ace-Ops in the attack.

It was fast, violent and almost beautiful. Perhaps Weiss had been a little too quick to dismiss them a few days ago. Weiss had rather arrogantly thought of her team as one of the best, but watching the Ace-Ops flawlessly dismantle the Petra Gigas made it abundantly clear that they had quite a way to go.

Weiss watched in amazement as Clover threw his fishing hook weapon out and snared the Geist, managing to pull it out of the ice it was animating and leaving it vulnerable to Harriet, who obliterated it in a single punch.

Of course, with the Geist no longer animating the amalgam of rock, ice and Dust, it started to fall apart, the Dust tumbling to the floor. The Ace-Ops immediately swung into action running for and catching the falling Dust crystals. One crystal, however, flew far away from the others. Weiss felt a familiar rush of air from beside her, and just as Harriet was too late to catch the falling crystal, it was swept up in a swirl of petals that reformed into Ruby who went crashing into a rock.

“Ruby!” Weiss shrieked and ran over to her now giggling girlfriend. “Be careful! Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine, Weiss.” Ruby reassured her as Harriet joined them and helped Ruby to her feet.

“I thought you said your semblance is like mine.” She asked, her eyebrow raised at Ruby.

“It is? Like, I go zoom?” Ruby demonstrated ‘zoom’ with a hand.

“I’ve seen other speed semblances before, and that did not look like any I’ve ever seen. I think there’s more to it than you might think.” Weiss and Ruby exchanged glances. This was an interesting development. They could discuss it later though, as Clover and the others joined them.

“Well done, team. Mission accomplished.” He smiled broadly at them all. “I’m going to report this in, then we can head back up to the surface.” He stepped away, pulling out his scroll.

“We did it!” Ruby cheered, throwing her arms around Weiss.

“Ack! Yes, we did.” Weiss patted Ruby on the back and was eventually released. “Can we get out of here now, please? It is way too cramped.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fight time! We get to see some of the new upgrades and talk about how awful capitalism and institutional racism are, y'know, the fun stuff. It's been a little while since we've had an action scene, so it's fun to get back into those a little bit.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being super duper cute. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being awesome.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	31. Chapter 31

It took them a couple of hours to fully clear out the mines. There were still several lingering Grimm, and they took the time to clear them out as well. Then they all slowly started to make their way up to the surface, tired from the fighting, there were still a few Centinels stragglers, but without the rest of their swarm, they were easily dispatched. After about ten minutes of walking, they finally emerged into the main entrance, and Weiss could hear the rumbling of approaching trucks from afar.

The sun was already setting, despite it still being the afternoon, and as they walked out into the chill weather. They saw several trucks pulling up and hovering slowly towards them, high in the sky, Amity Colosseum.

They’d been split up during the final sweep of the mines and now they were all together and Ruby, Jaune and Nora were all staring avidly at the Ace-Ops.

“They were so cool!” Jaune hissed to Ruby, who nodded frantically. “They didn’t have to call out attack names or anything, they just knew what to do.”

“Well, we were picked out to perfectly complement each other.” The three jumped in surprise and looked over at Clover who was grinning at them over his shoulder. “It means we can focus on our assets and leave our liabilities behind.”

“Hey, some of us are all asset and zero liability.” Marrow bragged, only to receive several derisive snorts from his teammates. “What? You think I’ve got liabilities?”

“Yeah, your brains, for a start.” Elm suggested with a laugh, punching Marrow in the shoulder as she walked past him, the others laughing along with her.

“You did ask.” Vine pointed out, shaking his head, and Marrow slumped in defeat and followed his teammates. As this happened, Nora had sidled away from Ruby and Jaune and over to Elm, who she grinned up at until the far taller woman noticed her.

“Hey! I like your hammer! Do you need a new best friend?” Nora asked in her usual rapidfire speech pattern that she got whenever she was excited about something. “Our pair name can be Thunder Thighs!”

Elm snorted a little at this. “I think you’ve got that covered by yourself there.” She pointed at her own legs. “Look at these babies, pure muscle, no fat at all.” She bragged whilst Nora deflated and Ren walked over to pat her on the shoulder.

“Besides, we don’t really do the whole ‘friends’ thing.” Harriet added, having halted as well to watch what was going on.

“What?” Ruby asked in shock.

“This isn’t the schoolyard, kid.” Elm said, not unkindly, as she folded her arms.

“But surely going through all sorts of life-threatening situations changes things, right?” Yang asked, her eyes flickering briefly over to Blake as Harriet shrugged.

“I mean, I trust them to have my back and I’ll have theirs, and we all get along well enough. But friends? Nah, this is just a job, and we don’t confuse work with pleasure.” There was a loud snort of laughter from just ahead, and they all looked to see Qrow trying desperately to hold back laughter. “What’s so funny?”

“You do know you’re talking to the wrong group of kids when you say that, right?” He guffawed, unable to hold it back.

“What?” Harriet looked between him and the teens in deep confusion.

“Didn’t you know that they’re all dating each other in various combinations?” He asked in disbelief, rolling his eyes before pointing to them. “Those two are dating the new Fall Maiden and each other, those three started dating a few days ago, and those two-.”

“Blake and I aren’t dating, Uncle Qrow.” Yang scowled at Qrow, who shrugged nonchalantly.

“You used to, and you’re pretty much back there again in everything but name.” His hand reaching for his inside pocket before stopping and relaxing. “Anyway, now y’all know.” He smirked before wandering off, whistling a jaunty tune.

“Well, that was enlightening.” Harriet said, blinking in bemusement and looking between all the teens curiously. “Was he actually being serious?”

“As serious as he can be, the irreverent git.” Weiss sighed, rubbing her temples in exhaustion. “And to pre-empt any questions, yes Ruby and I are dating. I’d actually say engaged might be a more appropriate term. And we’re both dating Neopolitan, who is the new Fall Maiden, the woman you chased off down in Mantle.” Weiss let a small hint of her bitterness about that whole incident and her absent girlfriend seep into her tone, and Harriet seemed to pick up on it a little as she seemed a little sheepish.

“Oh, sorry about that?” she shrugged, and was about to say something else when there was a call from Clover.

“Hare, Elm, the General wants us.” Looking over at Clover, Weiss saw that, whilst they’d been distracted, Ironwood had arrived with the contingent and was waiting for the other Ace-Ops to join him.

As Harriet and Elm jogged away, Jaune walked over to Nora who still looked a little downcast after Elm’s comment. “Hey, you alright, Nora?”

“I’m fine. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” Nora huffed, crossing her arms. “I’m plenty strong  _ and _ I’m fucking gorgeous.”

“Yes you are, sweetie.” Jaune reassured her, pressing a quick kiss to the top of Nora’s head. 

“So, what are we going to do when we get back to Atlas? Sightseeing? Oh, Weiss, where should we go first?” Ruby asked eagerly of her teammates who all groaned.

“Why not our beds?” Blake sighed, their posture slumped more than a little.

“But now we’ve got some proper time to go exploring.” Ruby whined and Weiss rolled her eyes.

“I don’t think Atlas is really the best place for two notorious Faunus to go exploring.” She pointed out with a sigh. She didn’t really feel like exposing herself to Atlas’ prejudices or setting foot in what was essentially Jacques Schnee’s domain.

“But-.” Ruby tried to protest, but it was cut off by a call from Ironwood.

“Can I get the team leaders over here, please? You too, Qrow, I’ve got something I need to discuss with you.” With a small shrug, Ruby and Jaune headed over to the general, leaving the rest of them to wait for them.

“You really think it would be that dangerous for you, Weiss?” Yang asked with a raised eyebrow. “Winter seems to be doing fine.”

“Winter didn’t threaten Jacques Schnee with ruin.” Weiss reminded them. “And she’s Ironwood’s right hand now, he can’t take any direct action against her.”

“So what? You’re just going to cower and hide in Atlas academy for the entire time we’re here?” Yang scoffed, fixing Weiss with a sceptical look.

“No, not all the time, at least.” Shrugging, Weiss looked away uncomfortably. “But I certainly don’t intend to deliberately put myself in the line of danger before I work out what I’m going to do when Jacques Schnee finds out I’m here.”

“Um, Weiss, I think you might have to do some quick thinking.” Blake spoke up, and when Weiss looked over at them, they simply pointed up. Following their finger, Weiss’ heart plummeted as she saw the airship emblazoned with the Schnee logo flying overhead towards one of the landing pads.

“Well, shit.” She said succinctly, starting to walk towards the landing pad that the General was already approaching, the others following along behind her. Ruby fell back a little to walk alongside Weiss, taking her hand and squeezing it supportively.

The General halted in front of the landing pad and waited patiently with his hands clasped behind his back. The airship landed, blowing snow off the landing pad, and almost immediately the door opened and Jacques Schnee marched down, already ranting away.

“So, James, on top of this ridiculous embargo you’ve imposed upon my business, now you’ve decided you can just commandeer private property,  _ my _ private property!” Jacques got right up in Ironwood’s face, despite the general having a good several inches on the businessman. “Just you wait til the council hears of this, they-.”

“The council already knows.” Ironwood interrupted Jacques’ tirade, his voice icy calm. “And as this is a classified military operation. A vote wasn’t required.”

“Wasn’t required?!” Jacques blustered, losing some of his initial confidence.

“You might want to brush up on the Council’s laws before you lose that election, Mr Schnee. You will be adequately compensated for the usage of your land, but given the site’s lack of usage, I’m not sure you’ll be getting nearly as much as you’re looking for. Now, I allowed you to land as a courtesy. Next time, things won’t be so welcoming.” Ironwood stood firm before Jacques who scowled deeply at the General, backing up a little.

“It seems you’ve forgotten who your friends are,  _ James _ . Mark my words, I’m going to get that council seat an-.” He paused mid-threat, as now that he wasn’t so in General Ironwood’s face, he could see who else was standing there listening. “You!”

“Me.” Weiss stared impassively back at the man who she’d thought was her father, trying not to let her nervousness or fear show.

“So you’re working with my wife’s other bastard now, are you?” Jacques hissed at Ironwood, whose expression remained neutral.

“I work with who I want,  _ Jacques _ .” Weiss sneered, a slight tremble slipping into her voice. “I’m not your little pet anymore, or had you forgotten our conversation last year?”

“Oh, if you think I’ve forgotten that, girl, then you’ve sorely misjudged the kind of man I am.”

“I know exactly the kind of man you are. I have recordings, remember?” Jacques’ face turned several interesting shades of purple as he spluttered for a moment.

“How dare you talk to me that way, you filthy ani-.”

“I wouldn’t finish that statement if I were you, Mr Schnee.” General Ironwood said, a stern weight to his words that silenced Jacques who took a moment to collect himself. As he straightened his tie, a sick smile twisted its way across his face.

“You know, after what happened at the tournament, after you vanished, your mother was devastated.” A leaden weight dropped in Weiss’ stomach at the mention of her mother as Jacques continued, his smirk only growing wider. “Nobody knew if you were even still alive. She locked herself in her room for days, mourning you, and you know how she can get when she’s upset.”

There was an awful twisting in Weiss’ stomach and a faint buzz started up in her ears. The last year, she’d barely spared a thought for her mother, or how she’d effectively dropped off the grid when she went to Patch. She was an awful daughter for putting her mother through that. Even if her mother wasn’t the best, she was still her mother. Ruby’s grip only tightened on Weiss’ hand and she felt Blake sidle up to her and press comfortingly into her side.

Satisfied his words had the desired effect on Weiss. Jacques returned his attention to Ironwood. “I knew you’d overextend one day. I’m not here to beg you for some abandoned mine. I came to thank you.” Ironwood raised an eyebrow so Jacques continued. “To thank you for handing me the noose with which I’ll hang you.”

Ironwood’s fists clenched, but he didn’t say a word as Jacques gave him a sickly smile. “You’ll regret this, James.” Then he briefly returned his attention to Weiss. “So, these are the ‘friends’ you bargained for? That you threw everything away for.”

“They’re not just my friends. They’re my family, more than you ever were.” Weiss still felt sick to her stomach, but her voice held firm as Jacques scowled and turned on his heel, marching back to his airship. As soon as he was aboard, it took off and Weiss allowed herself to slump, feeling what little bravado she still had left drain away. 

“It’s okay, Princess, he’s gone.” Ruby reassured her, pulling Weiss into a tight hug. “You’re alright, you’re alright.” Weiss relaxed into the hug, letting her breathing return to normal, and the buzzing slowly faded out. There was a rumbling of a truck and Weiss looked up to see it pull up on the recently vacated landing pad, and the side door opened to reveal Winter.

“Oh, Winter, you just missed Jacques.” Weiss informed her sister with a small frown. “I’m sure he would’ve loved to see you too.”

“I wouldn’t say I missed him.” Winter admitted sheepishly, her wings fluttering awkwardly until she focused properly on her sister. “Weiss, what did you do to your hair?!” Before Weiss could come up with a pithy retort, there was a clanking from inside the truck, and then Not-Penny pushed her way out past Winter and threw up her hands in excitement.

“Congratulations!” She beamed at them all. “I’m so happy for you all!”

“Um, why?” Yang asked, cocking her head in confusion. Not-Penny’s bright grin faded a little and she looked to the General.

“Oh, have you not informed them yet?”

“I felt it deserved a little more grandeur.” He said with a small indulgent smile.

“Wait, informed us of what? Ruby asked, looking between Ironwood and Not-Penny. “What deserves more grandeur?”

“If you could all follow me.” Ironwood said with a chuckle and led the way over to one of the transport ships that had arrived earlier. “Take us up.” He instructed the pilot who nodded and once everyone was aboard, pulled up and away, flying them up to Amity Colosseum.

There were several technicians and engineers already there as they docked, all running around and working on the preparations. Ironwood led the group through the tunnels that Weiss vaguely recognised.

After a few minutes of walking, and skipping in Nora’s case, they emerged into the arena. Dusk had fully set in by now and as they approached the centre of the arena. Several spotlights flicked on, illuminating them.

Weiss felt an odd lurching sensation in her stomach as she remembered everything that had happened in this arena, her wings getting exposed to the world, Yang framed for breaking Mercury’s leg, Penny being dismembered.

Weiss glanced over at Yang and Not-Penny to see how they were holding up. Yang seemed rather uncomfortable as well, and Weiss was unable to read Not-Penny’s expression, but she gave the impression of someone who was also unhappy with being here. 

Ironwood came to a halt in the centre of the arena, Not-Penny and Winter moving to flank him as they usually did, whilst the rest of them lined up in front of them.

“I think it goes without saying that this arena holds significance to all of us.” Signifiant, yes, but not in a good way. Weiss sincerely doubted Not-Penny liked standing in the same place her sister died, and she imagined if Penny herself were here, she’d be just as disquieted. “I think it’s rather fitting that we should reconvene here.”

Clasping his hands behind his back, Ironwood stepped forward and began to pace back and forth in front of them. “The road you’ve travelled since our first meeting hasn’t been easy. You fought for your school and friends back at Beacon, then you fought for the world and the innocent at Haven and beyond.”

He paused in his striding and turned to face them all. “You’ve gone above and beyond what’s expected of students, and I think it’s only right that you should be recognised for that.” He gestured Not-Penny forward, and the robot produced a large scroll and began tapping on it before walking down the line, starting with Ren.

There were a series of buzzes from pockets, and they all pulled out their scrolls to check. The icon for the identification settings was flashing. Opening it up, Weiss saw her details had changed. She no longer had a student license, it was now a full hunter’s license issued by Atlas.

“What?” Yang yelped as she stared bug-eyed at her scroll, then up at Ironwood.

“You’ve all been granted your hunter’s licenses.” Winter explained with a proud smile directed at her sister.

“It might be a little ahead of schedule, but you all deserve it after what you’ve done and been through. I’m not really one for speeches though, so this is about all you’re getting out of me.” The General smiled surprisingly jovially.

“We’re honoured, sir, but you didn’t have to do this.” Ruby said as she stepped forward but Ironwood raised a hand.

“I meant it when I said you deserve it, and with the threat of Salem and tensions mounting in Mantle, I could do with more trustworthy fighters by my side.” Weiss’ eyes flicked briefly over to Blake and Yang, but the pair gave no outward indication they were also feeling guilt roiling in their stomachs.

“I think I’ve taken up enough of your time. I should get back to directing operations, but you should all enjoy yourselves, and what better place than here? I believe there’s going to be cake. So… Enjoy!” Ironwood finished awkwardly and hurried out of the arena with Winter in tow.

“Imagine what his graduation speeches must be like.” Nora snorted, still looking down at her license with a mix of amusement and awe. “I can’t believe we got these now though.”

“Yeah, I forgot this was what I was aiming for in the first place.” Yang mumbled, tucking away her scroll.

“After everything that happened, I wasn’t sure it would even be possible.” Blake added, with a thoughtful frown.

“It… feels almost trivial.” Weiss agreed but was interrupted by a loud groan from Qrow.

“Jeez, I can’t believe I’m the one saying this, but lighten up, will ya?” He grumbled, walking over to his nieces and ruffling their hair but pulled back from Ruby’s with a noise of disgust as it came away coated in hair gel.

“Thank you! Someone said it! You four are all a bunch of grumpy guts. I want cake, and I don’t care if it makes me fatter, because I am cute as fuck!” Nora declared, marching off in search of cake with her boyfriends in tow. Weiss hung back a little to walk alongside Not-Penny as the rest of them followed the cake patrol.

“You holding up okay?” She asked quietly and the robotic girl shrugged with a small smile.

“About as well as I can revisiting the place my sister was brutally murdered on live television and having her last thoughts before dying stuck in my head.” Her smile was at complete odds with what she’d just said, and Weiss was about to probe further, but Not-Penny continued talking. “Don’t worry about me though, I’ll be fine. Go enjoy the cake!”

Reluctantly, Weiss nodded and sped up a little to rejoin her teammates, though she was unable to fully leave behind the morass of dark thoughts that continued to linger at the back of her mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Not-Penny, she's got a lot to deal with. Also, Jacques Schnee finally makes an appearance in person, and he's just as reprehensible as you might imagine. Also, Elm's kind of a jerk, all the Ace-Ops are really, I'm just calling Elm out in particular for fat shaming Nora.
> 
> Just as a heads up for everyone, I'm not going to be doing my regular updates next week because I will be taking part in Frosen Steel week and I figure that's more than enough content to tide y'all over.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being super helpful with plotting. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and keeping me in check.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	32. Chapter 32

The cake was surprisingly good, chocolate was beginning to grow on Weiss. Although it did seem like Nora was doing her best to put everyone off cake for good by swallowing whole slices at once and getting chocolate smeared around her mouth.

Weiss had spent most of the celebration of their achievement lurking awkwardly to the side, keeping a constant eye on Not-Penny as she laughed and joked with the others. She did a good job of pretending she was both fine and her sister. Weiss was actually surprised some of the more emotionally savvy members of their little group hadn’t picked up on how she was perhaps a little too peppy for someone revisiting the site of their erstwhile demise.

Not for the first time, Weiss wished she hadn’t made that promise to Not-Penny about keeping her secret. They were supposed to be stepping away from Ozpin’s legacy of mistrust, yet here she was, cultivating the environment in which doubt grows best.

“Hey, Weiss, what’re you doing all alone over here?” Weiss was startled out of her thoughts and looked up to see Jaune leaning up against the wall beside her, holding his own plate of cake.

“Not much of a party person.” Weiss half-lied, casting a glance over Jaune. She hadn’t had much of a chance to see his new clothes, and she had to admit, he pulled off a combat skirt annoyingly well, as well as the extra red he’d incorporated into his outfit.

“Huh. I would’ve thought you’d be used to parties with the whole rich girl thing you had going on.” Weiss rolled her eyes at the jesting jab.

“It all just feels a little empty. I don’t know.” Weiss shook her head. “I’m probably just being paranoid. After having Jacques Schnee sprung on me like that…”

“I can’t imagine how that must have felt.” Jaune hesitated, then reached out and patted her on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, Weiss.”

“I’ll be okay.” Shaking her head, Weiss sighed deeply. “I don’t really know how to explain it. I should be happy. We made it here in one piece, we’ve finally got actual support and even our hunter’s licences.”

“But you still don’t feel good about it all?”

“Pretty much.” Weiss shrugged and took a moody bite of cake. “I guess I shouldn’t be all that surprised that I’m not happy. One of my girlfriends is missing with no sign of her.”

“I imagine that would put a damper on your mood no matter how good it was.” Jaune agreed, finishing off his own slice of cake and watching Penny as she talked animatedly to Nora. “If it helps, you’re not the only one feeling kind of down, though compared to your reasons, mine is pretty petty.”

Weiss frowned up at Jaune curiously. “You’re not doing well?” He nodded a little, keeping his gaze on the two redheads. “Why tell me? Why not talk to your partners?”

“Because it’s incredibly petty and I feel awful for even feeling this way.” He finally tore his eyes away to look down at his empty plate. “Besides, they’re too close to this.”

“Too close to what?” Weiss probed gently.

“...Every time I look at her, I can’t help but think ‘Why her? Why couldn’t it be Pyrrha?’.” Jaune admitted shamefully, and something uncomfortable twisted in Weiss’ stomach.

“Oh...”

“Yeah, I know it’s shitty of me to think something like that. I should be happy at least someone made it out alive.” Jaune said quietly, now pushing some stray crumbs around the plate. “Hell, we’ve been Team JNR longer than we were JNPR. I don’t know why I still feel this way about her.”

“I’m sorry, Jaune.” Weiss mumbled, not really sure what else she could say to the young man. Weiss knew he was trying to move on from Pyrrha, but she suspected the shadow of her death would probably loom over him for a lot more time to come. Not just him either, and Weiss hoped that some day Jaune, Ren and Nora wouldn’t be defined by the one they’d lost.

“It’s fine. I should really stop moping around and try to enjoy myself. Ren and Nora are able to.” Jaune sighed, preparing to rejoin the party, but Weiss stopped him with a hand.

“It’s okay to feel sad about things, you know. You shouldn’t force yourself to be happy if you’re not.” She told him, and he hummed noncommittally.

“Probably not, but there comes a time when you do have to stop dwelling on sad things and let yourself be happy.” He gave Weiss a slight smile. “Thanks for listening though, and for the advice. It means a lot to me, even though we aren’t all that close.”

“Anytime, Jaune.” Weiss returned the smile as best as she could before he headed back over to his girlfriend where he was immediately pulled into a hug. Weiss meanwhile continued to stay on the sidelines, watching the festivities as she tried to settle this new burden amongst the others she had to carry.

“Why are things never easy?” She mumbled to herself, finishing off her cake and heading back over to the table. Nearby, Yang was pestering Blake to take a commemorative photo with her, which the cat Faunus reluctantly agreed to, rolling their eyes as they grimaced for the camera. Ren had joined in with his partners’ and Not-Penny’s conversation, leaving just Ruby unaccounted for.

Looking around, Weiss finally caught sight of her up in the stands, sitting with her uncle. Weiss considered joining them, but decided against intruding upon the family moment. Sighing to herself, Weiss wandered back over to the table and got another slice of cake just to fill the time. She didn’t really want to be here. On top of her various anxieties, Amity Arena held too many bad memories for her to feel comfortable.

It felt strange, returning to the place where her life had been turned upside down even if it had been over a year since she’d been here. Quietly, Weiss walked out to the centre of the arena again, chewing absently on her fresh slice of cake. Once she got to the centre, she came to a halt and turned slowly on the spot, taking it all in.

Closing her eyes, Weiss could remember the awful silence that followed her pyrrhic victory, how she’d stood completely exposed before all of Remnant. On the whole, she had mixed feelings about what had happened. She’d never take back being open about being a Faunus, but how it had happened definitely ranked up there amongst the worst moments of her life. Although she couldn’t shake the feeling that, if she hadn’t been outed, she probably wouldn’t have had the courage to do it herself.

“You okay, Weiss?” Weiss opened her eyes to see Blake and Yang hovering anxiously nearby.

“Yes, I’m just… remembering.” Weiss sighed softly, shaking her head. “This place doesn’t exactly hold good memories for me. Probably not for any of us.”

“Yeah, bit of an understatement.” Yang huffed in resigned amusement. “Ironwood probably meant well bringing us up here for the whole ceremony of it all, but he clearly didn’t think things through.”

“Probably.” Weiss walked the short distance to her teammates and leaned up against Yang. “How are you two enjoying the festivities?”

“The cake’s good.” Blake shrugged with a small frown. “Maybe we are focusing too much on the negatives and bad memories.”

“Probably. I still think I’ve got a good reason to be pessimistic right now though.” Weiss grumbled as the three started back towards the main party. “I’m getting very close to just flying down to Mantle and wandering the streets looking for Neo. It’d probably do about as much good as anything Ironwood’s been doing to find her.”

“She’ll be okay, Weiss.” Yang reassured her, but it didn’t work very well as Weiss continued to pout.

“Easy for you to say, she’s not your girlfriend.” She muttered and Yang stopped and turned to give Weiss a tired look.

“Of course, I have no idea what it’s like to have someone you love go missing and not know what’s happened to them, or even if they’re still alive or not.” Both Weiss and Blake winced at that, and the cat Faunus pulled tighter into Yang’s side.

“I’m sorry.” Looking down at her boots as she mumbled her apology, Weiss found herself still pulled into Yang’s embrace.

“Hey, I get it, you’re worried about your girlfriend. Next time, though, I suggest you don’t just reject attempts at comfort out of hand.” Weiss nodded against Yang and nuzzled up against her. The trio returned to the sidelines, where the others were all huddled around a projected screen.

“What are you all looking at?” Blake detached from Yang’s side to join them and peered at the screen.

“It’s the mission board!” Ruby exclaimed in excitement, tapping some of the entries on the screen and pulling out her scroll. “And look! It’s an app too!”

“Everything’s an app these days, even when it doesn’t need to be.” Yang rolled her eyes, pulling out her own scroll to inspect it. “It’s like these people don’t even think about the longevity of their systems, or if wireless connectivity is even necessary. I saw a toaster in Mistral that came with an app. Who needs that?”

“Don’t be such a downer, Yang.” Nora huffed, jabbing her with an elbow. “It’s spiffy.”

“Whatever…” Yang sighed, flipping through the app on her scroll. “So what are you looking at, Rubes?”

“Well, there’s this job here that-.” Ruby started, but was interrupted by a loud call from the entrance tunnel.

“What’s that I smell?” They all turned to see the source and saw Marrow striding into the arena with a cocky grin on his face, flanked by Elm and Vine. “Hmmm, it smells a lot like…” He paused and sniffed the air dramatically. “Fresh meat.”

“Well, you’d know, being part dog and all.” Elm guffawed, slapping Marrow on the back. She didn’t notice how Blake’s ears flattened or Weiss’ wings flared in irritation, but they forced themselves to relax as Marrow shot them a look.

“You’ve been licensed for barely an hour and you’re already looking for work?” Vine asked, and they just shrugged.

“Might as well. Not sure what else we should be doing.” Jaune shrugged and Nora nodded vigorously alongside him.

“Yeah, slay some Grimm, protect people. That sort of thing.”

“Might I remind you all that the true mission here is ensuring the successful launch of the communications tower?” Vine chided in an even tone, gesturing around him.

“True, but that doesn’t mean we can’t help out elsewhere in the meantime.” Ren said, and Vine shrugged, whilst Marrow wandered over to the board.

“Well, okay, then. Let’s see what we’ve got…” He scrolled through the sections, stopping at one with the heading ‘Escort’ “Oh, here’s an important one! Who wants to volunteer?” Several hands shot into the air before he could elaborate on what the task was. Weiss was one of the few who left their hand down, waiting for more details first.

“Great, we need someone to escort some children to pre-primary down in Mantle. There’s no  _ actual _ danger, but the parents get worried, and as you all know, that attracts Grimm.” Everyone’s hands except for Jaune’s fell. The cynical part of Weiss wondered exactly why the part about attracting Grimm would be mentioned. Such a small number of concerned parents wouldn’t be nearly enough to attract Grimm compared to an entire city of malcontent, and Weiss had a sneaking suspicion this was more about making a token gesture to the people of Mantle than anything actually helpful.

“Great! Thanks for volunteering, Jaune!”

“Yeah, great, my first huntsman’s mission.” Jaune tried his best to sound enthused, but it fell a little flat. All attention was diverted from him, however, as Elm marched over to the board and pushed Marrow out of the way.

“Enough with the kiddy stuff, pup. Let’s see here…” Elm scrolled through the mission board, still unaware of the glares the two younger Faunus were shooting at her from behind her back. “Aha! Here we go!” She jabbed something under the ‘Search and Destroy’ heading and an image of a Sabyr appeared beside the mission brief. “There’s a massive Sabyr loose in the Mantle sewers and we need a couple of brave warriors to flush it out and destroy it!” Everyone’s hands shot up again, Weiss being the only abstention this time. After the mines, she wasn’t keen on going down into some sewers, far too cramped and filthy, she shuddered just thinking about it.

“Awww, come on!” Jaune groaned. “Why couldn’t you have led with that one?”

“We’re not doing this for glory, Jaune.” Ruby reminded him, patting him sympathetically on the arm. “All these jobs are important, even if some of them aren’t exactly exciting.”

“Yeah, you’re right...” Jaune sighed, still a little resigned, but he pulled out his scroll and tapped the button to accept the mission.

In the end, Ruby and Yang got assigned to fight the Sabyr in the sewers whilst Blake and Weiss were assigned to guarding the launch site and clearing out any remaining Grimm in the area. Nora had immediately volunteered herself and Ren for a job keeping watch over Mantle’s outer perimeter, and finally, Qrow had elected not to take on any missions for now.

“I’ve got things to do with James, working out what to do about Oscar and Oz and our missing Maiden.” Weiss frowned at the last part of his explanation. She and Ruby should be the ones involved in finding their missing girlfriend, not Qrow. He seemed to have noticed her displeasure though, as he raised his hands in surrender. “Hey, not my decision, and I think James just wants my experience to weigh in on the matter.”

Weiss remained tactfully silent, and instead wrapped a wing around Ruby, who relaxed into the embrace. With the last slice of cake devoured by Nora, it was decided that they should head back to Atlas. As they filed out of the arena, Weiss shot Blake a meaningful look, and the pair slowed down a little to walk beside Marrow, who was trailing behind a little.

“I know what you’re going to say, don’t bother.” He said when he noticed who was flanking him, but that didn’t deter Blake.

“Did you give her permission to call you that?” They asked, and Marrow sighed in exasperation.

“It’s just a nickname, it’s fine.” He defended, but Blake kept frowning.

“It’s demeaning. We’re not just animals.” They insisted, and Weiss chipped in.

“And that crack about you being part dog too.” She grumbled, but Marrow just sighed again.

“Look, I get you two are budding social justice warriors, and that stuff might fly in the other kingdoms, but it’s different here in Atlas.” Blake and Weiss exchanged glances at Marrow’s description of them, but bit their tongues about Blake’s current position in the White Fang.

“Why are you defending her? Do you enjoy being made fun of?”

“It’s just light banter because I’m the newbie. Besides, all teams do it. It just means I’m part of the team.” Marrow defended, but Blake just rolled their eyes.

“We banter and tease each other, but we don’t throw around racial stereotypes in the name of humour.” They pointed out, whilst Weiss nodded in agreement.

“Look it’s just a joke and a nickname. It’s fine, and she could be a lot worse.” Marrow glared between the two younger Faunus, his patience clearly running out. “You have to pick your battles, and this isn’t one of them.” Shaking his head, Marrow sped up and left them to walk alongside Vine.

“So what do we do? Tell Ironwood?” Weiss asked quietly, but Blake shook their head.

“No, he’s right. You need to pick your battles, and this one isn’t worth it.”

“I hope you’re not just saying that because of what we talked about a few days about not making enough of a difference.” Weiss narrowed her eyes at Blake, who shrugged.

“Maybe I am, but you can’t argue with me about how we’ve got nothing to take to the General if Marrow’s not on board.” Blake was right about that, and it annoyed Weiss, so she simply let out a small huff and looked away. The two Faunus walked in silence for the rest of the way to the airship, where they parted to sit with their partners, who didn’t seem to notice the slightly frosty air between the two.

Tucked into Ruby’s side, Weiss cast her gaze over the occupants of the airship. As she did so, her gaze lingered on Not-Penny, Jaune and Yang, and Weiss wondered just what else there was bubbling under the surface of the group. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More discontent grows within the group and more and more things get piled onto Weiss. It's rather interesting how she's started to become everyone's collective confidante and only Weiss knows that she is. What with everything else going on, I don't know how well she's going to be able to hold up.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being an endless font of support.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	33. Chapter 33

They were all given the next day off after the Geist hunting mission, and it left them all at something of a loose end. It had been a long time since they’d been able to have a genuine break from things. Even after the Battle of Haven, there was still expectation that they needed to get to Atlas. Of course there were still things they needed to do, and that was what Ruby and Weiss were currently arguing with the General about.

“General, you have to let us go down there and help look for her.” Ruby pleaded with the man whilst Weiss glowered up at him.

“You can’t just freeze us out of this, we’re her partners.” She insisted, but Ironwood remained unmoved.

“I’m sorry, girls, but you two are too valuable as assets to let loose in Mantle.”

“And Neo isn’t?” Weiss asked coldly, not liking where this was going.

“Please, I can assure you that we are trying as hard as we can to find Miss Neopolitan. We’ve put out her description and image. Local law enforcement are looking for her as well.” Ironwood tried to reassure them, but Weiss snorted derisively.

“She can literally change her appearance to be anything she wants it to be. I doubt a description is going to help.” She pointed out irritably.

“I understand that, Miss Schnee, but in the absence of anything else, it’s what we’re going to do.” Ironwood said firmly. “I don’t want to have to order you to stay out of it, but if I have to, I will.” Weiss wanted to continue to protest, but Ruby laid a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry, sir, we won’t interfere.” She said, flashing Weiss a warning look. “But we would very much appreciate it if you could keep us informed.”

“I will, Miss Rose. Now, if that’s everything, I’m afraid I have some paperwork that isn’t going to fill itself out.” With a nod of acknowledgement, Ruby half-dragged Weiss out of the General’s office and back to the lifts. Ruby managed to get her to the antechamber with the lifts before Weiss shook herself free and glared at Ruby.

“Why did you stop me? He’s keeping us from finding Neo!” Weiss hissed, gesturing back in the direction of the office they’d just left.

“I know, I’m not happy about it either.” Ruby said with a sigh. “But we can’t afford to make an enemy of Ironwood, especially not when we’re still hiding things from him.”

“I suppose…” Weiss crossed her arms, still frowning in displeasure. “I don’t like it at all. We should be out there trying to find her. She’s our girlfriend.”

“I know, Princess, I know.” Ruby’s voice was soothing as she reached out to stroke Weiss’ cheek. “We’ll get her back, I promise.”

“...Okay, I trust you.” Weiss reached up to caress Ruby’s hand gently. “So what do we do now?”

“Why don’t we go see what Blake and Yang are up to?” Ruby suggested with a smile, lowering her hand with Weiss’ and intertwining their fingers. Nodding, Weiss allowed Ruby to pull her into the lifts which took them back down to the dorm levels.

The two slowly walked back to their dorm, but were intercepted on the way there by Jaune chasing after Nora, who was crowing with laughter. “Nora, give me back my scroll!” He yelled as he chased after his girlfriend, who dodged around Ruby and Weiss and kept running.

“Never!” She called back in between cackles as the two vanished out of sight.

“What do you think is on there that Jaune doesn’t want her to see?” Ruby asked conversationally as they continued on to their dorm.

“Probably embarrassing photos or something of that ilk.” Weiss shrugged, not all that concerned with the latest shenanigans that Nora was up to. Really, Jaune should have known this was what he was getting into by entering into a relationship with the chaotic young woman, much like Weiss knew what she’d been getting into by dating her two sugar gremlins.

They passed by the open door to the other dorm and took a quick peek inside to see Ren meditating on one of the beds whilst Oscar sat at one of the desks looking rather baffled. “You doing alright Oscar?” Ruby asked, catching the boy’s attention.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just a little… overwhelmed.”

“Nora?” Weiss asked and he nodded. “Hopefully you’ll get used to it eventually, Jaune and Ren clearly did.”

“Yeah, I guess. She is a lot though.” Oscar sighed and let his head droop. Shooting the boy a reassuring smile, Ruby walked over to their own dorm and unlocked the door, opening it to reveal a slightly unexpected sight.

“Oh my gosh!” She squealed with joy as Blake and Yang hastily pulled apart from one another, Blake climbing out of Yang’s lap and trying and failing to scrub the hints of Yang’s lip gloss off their lips. “Are you two...?”

“Yes, we are.” Yang admitted, looking quite embarrassed about getting caught in the act. “We’ve been talking about it the last couple of days, but we didn’t want to bring it up whilst you two were so worried about Neo.”

“Just because we’re upset about our missing girlfriend, doesn’t mean can’t also be happy for the two of you.” Weiss pointed out, closing the door and pulling Ruby to sit down with her on a couple of chairs. “So you’re officially back together, then?”

“It’s still a little tentative, and we’re taking stuff slow.” Yang answered quickly and Weiss noticed Blake’s sheepish smile falter just a bit. “But yeah, we’re dating again.”

“I’m so happy for you both!” Ruby squealed and launched herself at the not-so-new couple, pulling them both into a tight hug. “Oh, we can go on double dates, wait are they still double dates if one of the parties has three members?”

“Ruby, let them breathe.” Weiss instructed with a fond eye roll, reaching out and grabbing Ruby by her hood to pull her back. “Don’t overwhelm them either, Yang did just say they were taking it slow.”

“Okay, fine.” Ruby pouted, releasing Blake and Yang and folding her arms. “I’m just so happy for you both.”

“Thanks, Rubes.” Yang reached out and ruffled Ruby’s hair, before retracting it quickly with a look of disgust as her hand was coated in hair gel. “Try not to do a Weiss though.”

“Do a what?” Ruby looked back at Weiss who shrugged, not knowing what Yang was talking about either.

“Get overly invested in the well-being of other people’s relationships.” Blake filled them in and Weiss scowled.

“I do not do that!” She protested huffily as Ruby snickered quietly.

“Weiss, you can say it all you want, but you have to admit, you going to Menagerie to find me was at least a little motivated by trying to get me and Yang back together.” Weiss felt her face flush at the accusation and how she was unable to deny it.

“You’re my family, and I wanted you to both be happy.” Weiss mumbled defensively. “I thought you were happy together.”

Blake and Yang exchanged a look before looking back to Weiss. “We were, but…” Blake started but trailed off uncertainly and looked to Yang to finish.

“It’s more complicated than just a simple dating someone makes us happy, Weiss. I figured you’d know this, given how your relationship with Ruby and Neo works.”

“I know, I know.” Weiss grumbled, not liking how this conversation was going. “Can we just drop it? You two are dating again and we’re all very happy for you.”

“Alright…” Yang sounded rather reluctant but acquiesced to Weiss’ request. “So how come you two are back so early? We thought you were going to talk to Ironwood about helping to find Neo.”

“We did talk to him, but he said no.” Ruby sulked a little, sitting back in her chair and leaning up against Weiss.

“He said we’re ‘too valuable as assets.’” Weiss added, with far more venom than Ruby held. She hated not being able to do anything about Neo. It had been pushed to the back of her mind with the mission, but now that was over, it had once again started to consume her, even overtaking her concerns about Not-Penny.

“I’m sure something will turn up.” Blake tried to reassure her, but Weiss shook her head.

“It’s been days, Blake. Who knows what could have happened to her?” She said sadly, and Ruby nodded in agreement with a sad frown playing across her face.

“That’s not the only thing I’m worried about with her.” She spoke up a little hesitantly. “Weiss, you said this is the longest time you’ve been apart, didn’t you?” Weiss nodded, not sure where Ruby was going with this. “I’m scared that without us, without you, she might… backslide.”

It took Weiss a couple of moments to realise what Ruby was implying, and she scowled darkly at it. “No, Neo wouldn’t do that. She’s not some crazed murderer. You know that, Ruby.”

“Neo isn’t, but she’s not just Neo anymore, is she?” Weiss’ anger faltered a little as Ruby kept going. “She’s got that piece of Cinder’s soul in her now. You remember what she was like at the farm, what the Apathy did to her. I’m scared that without us or any of her friends, she’ll…”

“We’ll find her, Ruby. She’ll be fine.” Blake reassured, her getting up and pulling Ruby into a hug as Weiss’ mind turned this over in her head. She’d nearly forgotten about Neo’s forced merging with Cinder and how it had affected her personality. Or perhaps it hadn’t been so much that she’d forgotten and more that she didn’t want to think about it.

If she hadn’t been worried about Neo before, she definitely was now. How badly would that piece of Cinder affect Neo without her and Ruby to help reel her back in? Neo had been willing to give up back at the farm. What if that was more than just the Apathy draining her will to go on?

“Hey, Weiss, you’re getting stuck in your head.” Weiss barely registered Yang’s words before she was pulled into a tight hug. “Hey, it’s gonna be fine, she’ll come back.”

“I wish I could believe you.” Weiss muttered, though she did wriggle closer into Yang’s embrace. At least until she remembered that Yang’s hand was still covered in Ruby’s hair gel and was now getting it all over her cloak. “Yang! Your hand!”

“Oh shit, sorry!” Yang apologised, pulling away hastily and rushing into the bathroom to wash off whilst Weiss inspected the cloak and the conspicuous handprint that now stained it.

“Damnit Yang, I’ve managed to keep this pretty much pristine for an entire year.” Weiss complained, looking around for a tissue or something to try to clean it off with.

“I’m sorry!” Yang called from the bathroom as Weiss remembered she had a whole complement of handkerchiefs and pulled one out to start rubbing at the sticky patch.

“You managed to keep it this clean?” Ruby asked, still held in Blake’s arms as the cat Faunus stifled a few giggles. “I figured you’d have washed it at least a few times.”

“Of course I did, but there weren’t that many laundromats out in the wilds of Anima and stuff, as I’m sure you know.” Weiss pointed out as she scrubbed feverishly. “And besides, it was a gift from you, and it used to be your mother’s, so I had to keep it in good condition.”

“You never mentioned that before.” Blake said, looking at the cloak with a new curiosity.

“I didn’t know when I was on Menagerie.” Weiss said as Yang emerged from the bathroom, with a wad of damp toilet paper which she handed over for Weiss to use.

“How did you find out, then? You never mentioned and I assumed Yang told you.” Ruby looked to her sister who shook her head.

“It wasn’t me.”

“It was Raven.” Weiss said, wincing a little as Yang flinched away at the mention of the woman who purported to be her mother. “When Neo and I first encountered her, she actually mistook me for Summer.”

“That’s…” Ruby seemed to cast around for a satisfactory word, but was unable to find one. Yang, however, had several.

“Weird? Obsessive? Messed up?” She suggested with a dark look. “Indicative of an inability to let go of the past to the detriment of yourself and your relationships?”

“Okay…?” Ruby gave Yang an odd look, and the blonde blushed as she realised she might have said too much.

“Whatever it was, that was how I found out.” Weiss tried to deflect attention away from Yang’s comments, finishing scrubbing and inspecting the cloak. “And I think it’s fine now, Ruby?”

“Yep, good as new.” Ruby confirmed with a nod, and Yang flashed Weiss a grateful look from behind Ruby’s back.

“Excellent. Well, since the General won’t let us go looking for Neo, what should we do with the rest of our day off?” Weiss asked, continuing to divert the conversation away from the more difficult topics.

“I don’t know…” Yang hummed in thought. “Maybe we could check out Atlas? We’ve been around the academy, but never the city.”

“I’d rather not.” Weiss cut in quickly, shuddering a little. “Now that Jacques Schnee knows I’ve returned, I don’t think it’s safe for me to go into Atlas proper.”

“You’re just being paranoid, Weiss.” Yang told her. “Do you really want to stay trapped here out of fear?”

“It’s not paranoia.” Weiss looked to Blake for support. “Blake, you told me about assassinations of SDC execs who were sympathetic to the Faunus.”

“They were never proven to be assassinations.” They said with a small frown. “But…”

“But they almost certainly were.” Weiss finished the sentence impatiently, and Blake nodded reluctantly.

“Surely he wouldn’t risk Ironwood’s ire though? He knows you’re working for him now, and you said that was probably why he hasn’t gone after Winter.” Yang suggested and Weiss shrugged.

“Perhaps. I don’t want to risk it though.” Weiss muttered unhappily. She didn’t want to stay trapped in Atlas Academy, but until she was sure it was safe for her to venture out, she wasn’t going to risk it, especially not whilst Neo was still missing.

“So if we’re not going out to Atlas, what are we going to do, then?” Ruby asked, sounding rather unhappy.

“You can go into Atlas, Ruby. I’ll probably just stay here and read or something.” Weiss said, feeling a little guilty about disappointing her girlfriend.

“But I wanted to do something as a whole team.” Ruby pouted, folding her arms sulkily. “If we’re not leaving the academy, then what are we going to do?”

“Play a game or something?” Yang suggested with a shrug. “It’s been a while since the four of us have played a board game or anything like that.”

“I guess that could be fun…” Ruby still sounded rather sulky as she accepted Yang’s proposal. “Let’s see what there is in the rec room.” Getting to her feet, Ruby headed over to the door, Blake following after her. Yang made to follow, but Weiss stopped her with a hand and waited until the other two were out of earshot.

“Sorry for bringing up Raven, Yang.” She apologised quietly. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just pissed off, mostly at myself for letting just the mention of her get me riled up.” Yang sighed deeply and shook her head. “She’s made it very clear she doesn’t give a shit about me, so why do I still get angry about her?”

“Because she is your mother and should care about you.” Weiss reached out to pat Yang on the shoulder. “And you’re right to be angry about it too.”

“Yeah, I guess, I’m just tired of being angry about it.”

“You will get over it in time.” Weiss assured Yang as a thought occurred to her. “Maybe if you told Ruby about what happened in the vault-.”

“No!” Yang snapped, before taking a calming breath. “I already told you why I’m not telling her about what happened.”

“I know, but-.”

“No buts, Weiss. I’m not telling her.” Yang insisted, getting up from her chair. “We should probably catch up before they start wondering what’s taking us so long.” Weiss was a little slower to get up, but she followed Yang from the room, wondering as she did so how she became the go-to secretkeeper for her friends, and for how long she could keep it up before she was crushed under their weight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More concerns weighing down on Weiss, she's got a lot to worry about these days, poor girl. Still, Blake and Yang are officially back together so that's good, a small bright spot in amongst everything else that's going on. But if experience has taught us anything, there's only so much a person can take on their shoulders before they collapse.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being amazing at it. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and giving me so much encouragement.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	34. Chapter 34

The next couple of days, Weiss tried to keep herself busy, so as to distract herself from all the secrets she was carrying and her anxieties about Neo. Fortunately, there was plenty that needed doing, and Weiss wasn’t the only one kept busy.

Whilst Ruby and Yang had ended up being the ones to hunt the Sabyr down in the sewers of Mantle, Weiss and Blake had the less cramped job of clearing out a pack of Beowolves that had wandered a little too close for comfort to the launch site as part of their guard duties.

The two Faunus had made quick work of the pack, the only reason calling it a bloodbath would have been inaccurate was because Grimm didn’t bleed. It had been the perfect opportunity for Weiss to vent some of her frustrations, throwing herself head-first into the fight with one of her knights. She was almost disappointed when it was over, and she ended up restlessly fidgeting on the airship ride back.

“Weiss, are you okay?” Blake asked quietly so as not to attract the attention of Elm who’d been their handler for the mission. “You’ve been very…” They gestured to Weiss and her restlessly bouncing leg. “Today.”

“I’m fine, I was just expecting more of a fight and I’ve still got the adrenaline rush.” Weiss deflected, but Blake shook their head.

“No, you’ve been like this pretty much all day. Weiss, you know you can tell me anything.” Weiss wished that were true, but she’d made her promises and she was going to keep them.

“I’ll be fine, Blake.” She tried to reassure her teammate, but they didn’t look too convinced. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Weiss broke it awkwardly. “Do you have any plans for when we get back?”

“Not really. I’m probably going to hang out with Yang, maybe go down to have a look around Mantle.”

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, Kitty-cat.” Blake flinched as Elm spoke up from further down the Manta. “Things have been a little restless down there the last couple of days.”

“More of Ironwood’s opponents found dead?” Weiss asked, more than a little snippily as she desperately wanted to reprimand Elm for her careless nicknaming.

“No, actually. I’m surprised Clover didn’t mention it in this morning’s briefing actually.” She leaned back against the bulkhead with a small frown. “A couple of our people turned up dead yesterday, no real indication of who killed them, though they looked like they’d been interrogated.”

“Interrogated?” Blake’s ears twisted as she looked curiously at Elm.

“Yeah, that’s what the crime scene guys said, at least. That’s what’s so weird about it.”

“How so?”

“These weren’t particularly high-ranking guys. Not that that really changes how bad it was, but they were just a couple of guys who work in detentions.” Elm shrugged before her face twisted uncomfortably. “Don’t tell anyone I told you this though, Clover didn’t announce it for a reason.”

“Our lips are sealed.” Weiss promised as did Blake, though she secretly planned on telling Ruby the moment she saw her. This was far too suspicious for her not to share this with her partner. “I guess you and Yang will have to come up with something else to do.”

“If you want something, I think Harriet was setting up some kind of movie marathon.” Elm suggested, pulling out her scroll and checking it. “Yeah, in the rec room, if you want in.”

“I’ll ask Yang, but she’d probably be up for that.” Blake nodded and settled back in their seat as the pilot announced over the intercom that they were approaching Atlas Academy.

They touched down a few minutes later and the side door opened up, revealing, to everyone’s surprise, Winter standing there waiting for them, wings spread majestically.

“Oh, hey, birdbrain, what’re you doing here?” Elm asked as she jumped down from the airship and strode over to Winter.

“I thought I asked you not to call me that, Elm.” Winter sighed in resignation, shaking her head. “And I’m just waiting for my sister.”

“Well, here she is. Come on, Blake.” Reaching out and grabbing Blake by the shoulder as they climbed down, Elm steered them away leaving Weiss alone with her sister.

“Walk with me?” Weiss nodded and fell into step with Winter as they entered the tower. “I’m sorry I haven’t had much time with you since you got here, Weiss, but the General has had a lot on his plate and he needed my assistance.”

“I understand. I haven’t exactly been very free myself.” Weiss reassured her sister, who smiled gratefully down at her.

“Yes, well, I have cleared my schedule for this evening. Barring any sort of emergency, you have my uninterrupted attention.” Winter said, her wings flexing a little. “I thought we might be able to catch up on what’s happened with you since we last spoke, and see how your training has progressed.”

“That sounds wonderful.” Weiss returned Winter’s smile, welcoming the chance to escape her anxieties and spend some time with her sister.

“Excellent. I have reserved training room 4 for our usage.” Winter led the way to the lifts and pressed the call button. The doors slid smoothly open a moment later and the two sisters stepped in. Just as Winter pressed the button for the right floor and the doors were about to close, a voice called out from further away.

“Hold the lift, please!” Without thinking, Weiss swept out a wing to hold the door open and two women darted in. “Thanks.” One of them said, jabbing a button, then turned to look at the other occupants of the lift. “Oh, hello, Winter.”

“That’s Specialist Schnee to you, Miss Hill.” Weiss blinked a couple of times, nonplussed as she now recognised the tall woman with off-white hair. “What are you and one of your… posse... doing here?”

“We’re licensed huntresses, _ Specialist _ . We’re entitled to use the facilities the academy provides, or had you forgotten that?” Robyn’s blue-haired companion asked with a sneer, her eyes darting between Weiss and Winter.

“I thought the Happy Huntresses were well equipped enough that you didn’t need the support of the Atlas military.” Winter sniped back icily whilst Weiss stood to the side, wondering how her sister knew Robyn Hill well enough for the woman to think she was on first name basis with her.

“Can you two please stop it?” Robyn sighed, shaking her head. “May, stop being so antagonistic. Winter...”

“Specialist Schnee.”

“Whatever.” Robyn rolled her eyes as the lift came to a halt and the doors opened. “This is us.” With a last glare at the siblings, the blue-haired woman followed Robyn out of the lift, the door closing behind them and continuing upwards.

“What was that about?” Weiss asked as soon as the doors were closed.

“Nothing important, just some old business.” Winter brushed off the question, though her wings continued to twitch irritably. Weiss fell silent as the lift arrived at their floor and Winter led the way out and down the corridor towards the training rooms.

“So, Weiss, where did you go after Beacon fell?” Winter asked out of nowhere as they walked side by side. “By the time I got back to Atlas, the CCT had already fallen and you had disappeared completely, I feared the worst.”

“I was on Patch. Ruby and Yang got injured during the fighting and I couldn’t just leave them.” Weiss explained. “Also, I welcomed people not knowing where I was after what happened to me in the tournament.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you after that fiasco of a semi-final.”

“It’s alright, I had my team to support me.” Weiss reassured Winter. “Getting disowned wasn’t the worst thing to happen. Besides, I should be the one apologising to you.”

“Whatever for?” Winter’s brows knitted in confusion.

“It’s my fault you got exposed as well. If I’d been able to keep my wings hidden…”

“Don’t talk nonsense, Weiss.” Winter instructed her sharply. “It was not your fault, just a stroke of bad luck.”

“But…”

“No buts.” Winter stopped walking to look down at her sister. “I do not blame you for what happened. In fact, I am very happy you seem to be thriving and comfortable in yourself at last.”

“I suppose I am.” Weiss admitted as they started walking again. “I’d say it’s mostly because of where I’ve been for most of the last year.”

“Would I be right in my assumption that you went to Menagerie, then?”

“You would, but how did you know?” Weiss asked curiously and Winter chuckled a little.

“Your wing ornaments are a bit of a giveaway.” One of Winter’s wings reached out to nudge the gold filigree band clasped over the joint of Weiss’ wing. “It was one of the few things our father taught me about.”

“Did you not want to get some of your own, now that you’re revealed as a Faunus?” Winter shook her head at the question.

“I would like to, but Ironwood said I should avoid doing things that might alienate certain sections of the Atlas populace.”

“You mean the racists?” Weiss scowled. “Would they even know what it meant?”

“Probably not, but the General has to play a difficult game with the various people he has to appease and keep happy.” Winter told Weiss with the tone of someone explaining something very complex to a child. “But that’s beside the point. You travelled to Menagerie?”

Weiss wasn’t keen on leaving this topic, but accepted the rerailing of the conversation. “Yes, I did.” She wondered for a moment whether she should mention why exactly she’d gone, and opted instead to keep the details somewhat vague.

“After the Fall, Blake returned home to their parents, and I followed after them once Ruby had recovered.”

“I see. How long did you stay for?” Winter asked as they finally reached the training room Winter had reserved and Winter keyed in the access code.

“Several months. Neo and I got stuck there thanks to the storms.” Weiss explained, walking into the room and waiting for her sister.

“Ah yes, your other girlfriend.” Winter seemed more than a little awkward at the mention of Neo. “How did you meet her? You never mentioned.”

“That’s actually something of a story. I had to take a caravan across Sanus to get to Menagerie, and along the way, we were attacked by bandits. Neo was one of them.” Weiss watched in faint amusement as Winter’s expression grew incredulous. “I know it sounds bad when I say it like that, but she’s not a bad person. I love her, and so does Ruby.”

“I know you do.” Winter sighed resignedly. “It’s going to take quite a bit of getting used to, but I’ll get there.”

“I’m glad.” Weiss looked around the training room. She hadn’t spent much time in them since her arrival and was interested to see how it differed from Beacon’s. “So, was there anything else you wanted me to tell you about?”

“One thing and it’s why I booked a training room.” Winter stepped into the centre of the room, hands clasped behind her back. “How has your development of your Semblance been? When we last spoke, you were unable to summon at all.”

A smug smile grew across Weiss’ face at the mention of summoning. She’d been hoping to show off her new abilities to Winter for some time now. “It’s gone very well. In fact, I think I have something interesting to show you.”

Stepping back to give herself some space, Weiss stretched out her right arm with a flourish, Lilie der Rache gleaming where it sat on her forearm. With a twist, Weiss set it to pure Ice Dust, then knelt down and pressed her hand to the floor, ignoring her sister’s skeptical eyebrow.

With a pulse of aura, Weiss concentrated momentarily on how she was surpassing her sister with her knowledge and would continue to grow. The large glyph spun into life on the floor and a crystalline fist thrust its way out, followed by the rest of the knight, its icy armour gleaming in the lights of the training room.

Standing up and brushing herself off, Weiss stepped around her knight to look at her sister, and was rather gratified to see she was rather shocked by this development.

“You told me not to rely so much on Dust, but I think I’ve managed to make it work for me.” Weiss preened a little, her wings ruffling in pride.

“You certainly have.” Winter approached the knight, reaching out tentatively to run her hand over the icy surface. “I will freely admit, I never thought of using Dust to augment my summons.”

“I did it accidentally at first.” Weiss admitted a little sheepishly. “And then, even after I learned why I was unable to initially summon, it took someone else pointing it out for me to realise what was happening.”

“Well, it was a fortunate accident, then.” Winter said with a hint of approval in her voice. “This is excellent progress, Weiss.”

“Thank you.” Weiss dipped into a shallow curtsey before standing up straight. “So, what do you propose I do next?”

“I have a couple of ideas. For now though, I’d like to see how your summon handles itself.” Winter smiled as a Glyph spun into life behind her and a large Manticore emerged, nuzzling up to Winter momentarily before growling and facing Weiss’ knight, which drew its sword.

The two summons faced each other warily for a moment, then at a mental command, Weiss’ slid forward, its icy form allowing it to skate across the floor, picking up momentum as it swung its sword around to bifurcate the Manticore.

At the last second though, it launched itself into the air, taking advantage of its aerial capabilities to remain out of Weiss’ knight’s reach. Grimacing, Weiss directed her knight to chase down the evasive Manticore, annoyed that she couldn’t join the fray herself.

Winter stood imperiously to one side, watching the melee with interest, but making no move to fight herself. She’d occasionally advocated for this method of fighting with summons, and that one should only enter the fight if the summons were not there to fight on your behalf.

Weiss wouldn’t say it out loud, but she thought it was a daft notion. Over two years of fighting alongside various partners had taught Weiss how valuable it was to have someone to fight alongside you to cover for your weaknesses. In many ways, their summons were the perfect partner, able to fight without verbal instruction and functioning almost as an extension of their will.

Weiss winced as her summon missed a swing and paid for it with a spectral fireball to the back. Its Dust augmented body held up well against the punishment, however, and it continued to fight on, though it was clearly outmatched by the speed and flight of Winter’s Manticore.

Eventually, its inability to hit the flying summon proved to be too big of a hurdle and the knight was shattered into a million pieces by one final blow from Winter’s summon. Weiss’ shoulders slumped in defeat, and her wings went limp as she turned to her sister, awaiting her scathing assessment.

“You did rather well, Weiss.” The younger woman blinked in shock for a moment, she hadn’t expected praise at all. “And I am very interested to see what else your Dust augmentations can do for your summons.”

“Thank you?” Weiss said tentatively, unsure of how to really respond to this.

“However, I do think there are a few areas for you to improve upon, perhaps the most important being learning to summon multiple creatures at once.” Weiss winced a little, this was what she’d been expecting. “You haven’t tried yet, have you?” Weiss shook her head. “I thought not. You could have almost an entire army at your disposal, Weiss. Don’t waste that potential.”

“I won’t, Winter. “Weiss reassured her sister, standing up straight. “Did you want to go again?”

“In a little while. I would also like to gauge how well your swordplay has progressed.” Winter said, drawing her sword and waiting for Weiss to do the same. Sighing softly, Weiss drew Penny Dreadful and raised the weapon. This wasn’t exactly what she’d envisioned when she’d wanted some sisterly bonding. Still, it was better than nothing, and at least she got to spend some time with her sister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while since I've had to write Winter as more than a bit part, I hope I did her and her changed relationship with Weiss justice. Weiss finally gets to show off a bit too, she's grown a lot since she and Winter last spoke and they've got a lot to catch up on and it's a nice respite from all of Weiss' other stresses.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being the best. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and keeping me from hating myself too much.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	35. Chapter 35

“Nora, would you care to explain why all your troops are on my border?” Weiss asked, her wings flaring angrily as she glowered at Nora whilst she whistled innocently. Weiss had spent most of the day with Winter, showing her sister her expanded repertoire of techniques, which Winter had determined to be inelegant yet brutally effective.

The continued violence helped a little in burning off some of Weiss’ lingering energy and stress, but it still wasn’t enough to fully settle her.

Once they’d finished, Winter had retired to her quarters, telling Weiss she had some other business to attend to, leaving Weiss to find her teammates. She’d been unable to find them, but she did stumble upon Jaune and the others in the rec room trying to teach Oscar how to play Remnant: the Game.

Weiss wasn’t quite sure how she got roped into playing, but it had happened somehow, and now she was locked in a stalemate with Nora.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Weiss.” Nora grinned lazily, propping her chin upon her fist.

“You know perfectly well that having that many troops in that area directly contravenes the treaty of ‘please don’t kill me’. A treaty  _ you  _ begged for.” Weiss glared at Nora, who shrugged nonchalantly.

“I don’t remember signing any such agreement.” Weiss was fairly certain her veins were popping with rage on her forehead. She knew Nora was just being deliberately obtuse, but she was under a lot of stress and this silliness was really starting to get to her.

“You little-.”

“Weiss, aren’t you getting a little worked up over just a game?” Oscar ventured nervously, only to cower back as Weiss turned her glare upon him.

“Just a game?” Weiss growled, eyes flashing. “This is more than just a game, it’s a microcosm of the interaction between diplomacy and military strategy. It teaches us valuable skills in navigating negotiations and appeasing various powers, especially when you lack the power yourself.”

“Um, Weiss, I think you might be projecting there just a little.” Jaune spoke up, Weiss’ ire now moving to him. “It really is just a game.”

“But-.”

“Weiss, stop.” Ren spoke firmly, folding his arms. “Calm down and take a deep breath.” Weiss matched his impassive gaze for a good minute before doing what he said and taking a calming breath.

“Better?” Ren asked, and Weiss nodded, shame starting to dig at the back of her mind.

“Yes. Sorry I got too competitive for a moment there.” Weiss apologised and deflected, but Jaune didn’t seem inclined to let it go just yet.

“Are you alright, Weiss? You can talk to us if you need to.”

“I’m fine, I have to be.” Weiss told them, not quite thinking it through before realising the latter part of what she’d said.

“Yeah, that doesn’t sound like you’re fine.” Sarcasm dripped from Nora’s voice as she leaned in curiously. “So spill. What’s up with the Ice Queen?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Weiss’ denial fell upon deaf ears as Nora continued to pester her. Jaune, however, scrutinised her carefully, deep in thought.

“Is it about Neo?” He asked, cutting off Nora’s repetitions of ‘Tell us!’, and Weiss shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Weiss?”

“Yes…” She admitted, finally giving up on trying to pretend anymore. Besides, it was at least the one thing she could share freely with people, unlike everything else she was holding onto. “I’ve been trying to distract myself from it, but all I can think about is her and what’s happened to her, and I just feel so frustrated being stuck here and not doing anything about it.”

“Weren’t you and Ruby planning on going down to Mantle to go looking for her?” Ren tilted his head in confusion, the whole table’s attention was now fully upon Weiss now.

“We were, but when we asked the General, he ordered us not to.” Weiss huffed irritably, remembering the conversation and her dark feelings on the matter swelled up again.

“Well that’s bullshit.” Nora said simply, crossing her arms with an irritated frown. “She’s you and Ruby’s girlfriend. If anyone can track her down and get her to come back, it’s you two.”

“I know, but Ironwood said that we’re too valuable to waste on hunting her down.”

“And you’re just listening to what he’s telling you to do, like a good little lapdog.” Weiss glared angrily at Nora’s accusation. She was nobody’s lapdog or puppet, not anymore. The only person in charge of her life was her.

“He is our superior officer, so we do have to follow his orders.” Ren pointed out in a measured tone. “Even if we vehemently disagree with them, it’s the chain of command.”

“Yeah, well, it’s a stupid chain.” Nora shrugged, and Weiss was inclined to agree with her on this. “I say fuck Ironwood, let’s hit Mantle and see what we can scrounge up.”

“Nora, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Ren’s voice sharpened, as did his gaze as he stared down Nora. “This isn’t something you can just jump right into and blatantly disregard orders.”

“What? You think we should just play by Ironwood’s rules, then?” Nora asked as Jaune and Oscar looked between her and Ren nervously.

“No, I think that we’re in a difficult position that’s more precarious than we realise, and we have to play things safe.” Ren tried to reason, but Weiss’ mind was made up now.

“No, I’m done doing nothing about Neo. It’s been a week and I need to know she’s safe, so I’m going.” Weiss started to get up, ignoring the frantic looks from Jaune and Oscar.

“I’m going too. I’m not about to let you wander around Mantle all by yourself.” Nora agreed, getting up as well, looking over the other members of her team. “Any of you coming, or you just gonna sit around up here waiting for more orders?”

There was a moment of silence before Ren got up from the table as well. “I’ll come. Jaune, Oscar, can you stay here to cover for us?” The other two nodded quietly as Weiss marched from the room, Nora and Ren in tow. Briefly stopping by the armoury to pick up Ren and Nora’s weapons, the three made their way to the landing pad, where Nora spoke to a pilot and quickly commandeered a ship for them.

Weiss hung back a little whilst Nora did the talking. Whilst she didn’t think the General would have banned her from going into Mantle altogether, getting caught flying down probably wouldn’t go down so well.

“Okay, let’s go!” Nora chirped as the pilot climbed into the cockpit whilst she clambered into the side of the airship. Ren and Weiss followed after her and seated themselves on the benches as the door slid shut behind them and they took off.

“Do you have any idea where to start looking, Weiss?” Ren asked once they were airborne.

“No, I don’t.” Weiss admitted, blushing a little. Her resolve from earlier fading a little as she realised that she’d just jumped into this without a plan. “I don’t know where she might have gone, and I don’t know Mantle well enough to know where to even start looking.”

“Well, lucky for you, you’ve got the Mantle expert with you.” Nore grinned proudly, pointing a thumb at her chest whilst Ren rolled his eyes.

“You left Mantle over ten years ago, somehow I doubt it’s still the same.” Ren pointed out only for Nora to huff.

“Well, actually, I think you’ll find I actually have a lead.”

“You do?!” Weiss stared at Nora, wondering why she hadn’t brought this up before.

“Okay, calling it a lead is a bit of a stretch, but I have an idea for how we can start looking for her.” Nora explained quickly, noticing Weiss’ expression.

“Do tell.” Weiss folded her arms expectantly.

“Right, so Neo’s Atlesian right?”

“That’s what she’s told me. Pretty sure she was from a rich family too.” Weiss confirmed, wondering how that would help them if they were going down to Mantle.

“Yeah, but then she ended up in Mantle somehow.” Weiss nodded along. This was lining up with what little Neo had told her. “One thing, just so I’m sure I’m right about this hunch. Has Neo always been mute?”

“No, I’m pretty sure she hasn’t.” Weiss wondered briefly if she should mention Neo’s scars, then decided to do it anyway. Anything to help her find her missing girlfriend. “She’s got a lot of scars on her neck and collar, but she normally hides them with her Semblance.”

“Great, then I think I have us a solid lead.” Nora smirked triumphantly.

“You still haven’t told us what it is exactly.” Ren noted, and Nora rolled her eyes.

“I was just getting to that.” She grumbled, leaning forwards. “So Neo wasn’t always mute, but she still speaks fluent ASL. Didn’t you wonder where she learned it?”

“No, I never did, actually.” Weiss thought for a moment. She never had considered how Neo had learned ASL, it was just something Neo did and taught her.

“You think…?” Ren leaned forward as well, his eyes alight with interest.

_ ‘I think she learned it from the same person I did, Dr P.’ _ Nora signed to them, more than a little smugly too.

“You think so?” Weiss asked. It made a fair amount of sense but she had to be sure.

“It’s pretty much Dr P’s thing, teaching Mantle kids stuff like that. I can almost guarantee he’s the guy who taught her how to sign, not to mention, all the kids in Mantle know Dr P.” Nora leaned back confidently, lacing her hands behind her head. “If Neo lived in Mantle as a child, then she’d have met Dr P.”

“So what are you proposing, then? We go to Dr Polendina and ask him if he’s seen Neo?” Weiss couldn’t keep a hint of scepticism out of her voice. It was a solid idea, but she doubted it would be quite that successful.

“Well, I’d call that the best case scenario.” Nora conceded. “Maybe, if we’re lucky, Neo will have contacted him and he can point us in her direction.”

“Somehow I doubt that.” Ren’s expression was also twisted into a frown. “Given how Neo’s staying off the grid and she knows that Dr Polendina works for General Ironwood.”

“I never said the best case scenario was particularly likely.” Pouting sulkily, Neo crossed her arms. “What I’m hoping for is that Dr P knows where Neo used to hang around. Maybe she’ll have gone back to her old stomping grounds or something.”

“I guess…” Weiss was feeling quite a bit less sure about this plan now. Still in the absence of anything better…

They touched down a couple of minutes later and the three got out and with Nora in the lead, headed into Mantle. Despite the heating system, it was still chillier down here than it was up in Atlas, and Weiss pulled her cloak closer around herself.

As they walked through the streets, passing various people huddled up in coats and heading about their business, Weiss noticed something about them. “Where are all the Faunus?” She asked Nora quietly, shifting her wings uncomfortably beneath her cloak. “I expected there’d be a lot down here in Mantle, what with all the miners.”

“There are, just not here in the city proper.” Nora told her, an uncomfortable look crossing her face. “Most Faunus live in the slums down in the crater.”

“Oh…” Weiss’ head dropped. She didn’t know what else she’d expected, especially after getting shouted at by that random man when they’d first arrived.

“It’s stupid.” Nora hissed angrily, glaring around her. “The Faunus are shunned and forced to live in terrible conditions on the very edge of the city by the people who live here. They don’t care that Atlas lords it over both Humans and Faunus in Mantle, they only care that they are above someone else, and that’s the Faunus.”

“I’ve never heard you talk about things like that before.” Weiss commented as they continued to walk down the streets.

“Yeah, well, I’ve been listening to some of Robyn Hill’s speeches since we got here. I may not have been here for years, but Mantle’s still my hometown and I still care about it. Seeing it so divided, it makes me angry.”

“At least Robyn’s doing something about it.” Ren offered, laying a hand on Nora’s shoulder.

“She’s trying, but I don’t know if it’ll be enough.” Nora sighed sadly, shaking her head as they turned onto the street where Dr Polendina’s pharmacy was, the bright green cross illuminating the area.

Breaking into a smile, Nora sped up a little and knocked excitedly on the door. A few moments later, the doctor called out to invite them in and Nora threw the door open to bounce inside. “Hi, Dr P!” She chirped, her prior irritation at the state of Mantle slipping away as she rushed over to hug the old man.

“Oof, hello, Nora.” Pietro wheezed as Nora collided with him. “I thought I told you that you’re old enough to call me Pietro now.”

“You did, but you’ll always be Dr P to me.” Nora smiled sunnily at the doctor as she released him and hopped back, hands clasped behind her back.

“I see, I see.” He chuckled, casting his gaze over the small group. “So, what brings the three of you down to Mantle, hmm? Come to see Maria? She’s out at the moment getting some tea.”

“It’s not a social call, I’m afraid.” Weiss stepped forward, giving Pietro an apologetic smile. “We were hoping you could help us find someone.”

“Alright…” Pietro looked a little confused as his chair walked over to his desk. “Who is it you’re looking for?”

“My girlfriend, Neo, She was with us when we first arrived here.”

“Short, like, even shorter than me, and wearing a silly bowler hat.” Nora added, earning a glare from Weiss that she ignored.

“Oh, yes, I remember her now.” Pietro nodded, though his look of confusion didn’t abate. “I’m not quite sure how you think I can help you with that though. The General already asked me to put a trace out for her scroll but it’s been disabled, probably destroyed.”

“Actually, I think you can.” Nora grinned widely, skipping over to Pietro’s desk and planting her hands on it excitedly. “I’m pretty sure you knew her when she was a kid.”

“I did?”

“Neo’s Atlesian, but she ended up living in Mantle for a while when she was younger.” Weiss explained, rolling her eyes at how Nora was unable to give the important information first.

“Yeah, and she knows ASL, and you know who likes teaching kids how to sign?” Nora’s grin only widened as Pietro nodded with a small chuckle.

“Yes, I do do that, don’t I?” He shook his head in amusement, reaching out to ruffle Nora’s hair. “You were quite the pain to teach, if I recall. Couldn’t sit still at all.”

“I’m high-energy, of course I was going to have trouble with that.” Nora pouted, rearranging her hair. “But I learned in the end.”

“Yes, I suppose you did.” Pietro smiled proudly at Nora before shaking his head sadly. “But I taught a lot of kids how to sign, so I’m not sure I’d remember your friend.” Weiss had to admit he had a point, especially as Neo could change her appearance on a whim. Nora, however, was undeterred.

“Yeah, maybe. Do you not remember anyone who looked like her?” Pietro hummed and stroked his beard in thought for a moment before shaking his head.

“No, I can’t say that I do, and she was rather distinctive. I’d probably remember someone with hair like that.” He said apologetically, shrugging his shoulders as Weiss felt the last dregs of hope drain from her.

“She’s mute.” Ren spoke up for the first time since they’d arrived at the pharmacy, and everyone turned to look at him. “Neo can’t talk. Weiss, you mentioned that she has scars.”

“Yes, all over her neck.” Weiss nodded, confirming Ren’s statement and looking back to Pietro to see his eyes widening.

“Why didn’t you mention that in the first place?” He glanced over at Nora, who just shrugged.

“Didn’t think it was important.”

“Didn’t think it was important to mention to the doctor a very distinctive injury?” Pietro shook his head with a sigh. “You really haven’t changed a bit, have you, Nora?”

“Nope!” Nora’s smile dropped for a moment. “Well, I guess I have in quite a lot of ways. I’m buff and awesome now, and I finally managed to put on that weight an-.”

“So you did know Neo, then?” Weiss interrupted before they could get anymore off track, ignoring the annoyed look Nora shot her.

“Yes, well, I didn’t know her as Neo back then.” Pietro sighed, reaching up to remove his glasses to wipe them clean. “It was maybe a couple of years after you left Mantle, Nora. I met a young girl a little older than you, with some truly horrific scars around her throat, very recent too.” He shook his head and replaced his glasses. “She told me her name was Anise and that she’d heard around Mantle that I could teach her how to sign.”

“That sort of sounds like it could have been Neo.” Nora said with a frown. “So do you know where she was staying?”

“From what I gathered, she was homeless.” Pietro sighed deeply. “I tried to get her to at least stay here at the pharmacy where it was warm, but she refused.”

“So you don’t know where she was sleeping then?” Weiss’ heart began to sink again.

“I didn’t say that now, did I?” Pietro leaned over and opened up a drawer in his desk. “I may have gotten a friend to follow her, just to make sure she was safe.” Sitting upright, he unfolded a map on the desk. “She was staying in an abandoned building just here.” He pointed to a building marked with an X and labelled as Anise.

“Great! Thanks, Dr P!” Nora leaned over the desk to hug the old man again whilst Ren and Weiss studied the map.

“It’s not too far away from here…” Ren mused, tracing a route with his finger. “We can get there in maybe ten minutes.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Weiss was already heading for the door. “Thanks, Dr Polendina.”

“You’re welcome, Miss Schnee. I hope you find her.” Pietro waved the three off as they left the pharmacy. Ren led the way along the streets, evidently far better at navigating than Nora was, though Weiss wanted them to pick up the pace a little. This was the best lead they’d gotten on where Neo could be and Weiss wasn’t about to let it slip through her fingers.

Urging the other two onwards, Weiss jogged along the street, ignoring the odd looks she got from the other pedestrians, until they finally turned onto the street and came to a screeching halt. The street was filled with Atlesian soldiers all milling around and guarding a building that was surrounded by barriers.

“Was that the building Pietro was talking about?” Weiss asked Ren who nodded silently.

“Yeah. That’s not good, is it?” Nora hummed in agreement, tilting her head as Weiss wondered what they should do next. “You don’t think…?”

“Neo’s a Maiden, I don’t think there’s much that could stop her.” Weiss murmured, thought some doubt was creeping into her mind. “Besides, if something did happen to her, I’m pretty sure either Ruby or I would end up with the Maiden powers.”

“Then i guess we should find out what’s happened, maybe it’s just a coincidence.” Nora suggested with perhaps a little too much forced optimism as she led the way to the barriers where they were promptly stopped by a soldier.

“Halt, no civilians. Move along.” He ordered and Weiss couldn’t help but notice the man’s finger tightening on the trigger of his rifle, even if he wasn’t aiming it at them.

“We’re hunters, thought we might be able to lend a hand.” Nora said quickly, pulling out her license and showing it to the soldier, who relaxed a little.

“I see. Well don’t worry about it, we’ve got it under control.”

“What actually happened?” Ren asked, undeterred by the soldier’s suggestion.

“We found another body. SDC exec this time.” The man told them shortly looking over his shoulder. “No doubt those rich bastards up in Atlas will start trying to claim it’s another revolution or something now that their people are getting killed too.”

“I see. Thanks for the information.” Ren told the man politely before pulling Weiss and Nora away from the scene.

“It could just be a coincidence, right?” Weiss asked the other two, perhaps a little desperately. “Lots of people hold grudges against the SDC and it’s just a convenient place to dump the body.”

“Possibly, probably even.” Nora reassured her though her face told a different story. “It would be way too big of a coincidence for us to find out that’s where Neo used to crash only for there to be a dead body found there.”

“Exactly, Neo wouldn’t just be murdering random SDC executives, she’s put that behind her.” Weiss said, more to reassure herself than anyone else.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Nora sighed a little. “Still, it does mean this lead’s dried up. Sorry, Weiss.”

“It’s okay, Nora. Thanks for your help anyway, both of you.” Ren offered her a small smile as the three started back to the airship landing pad. Before they left the street, Weiss cast a look back at the warehouse. She was sure Neo was fine. She had to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After promising it for a while, we finally get a smidgen of Neo's backstory as well as them finally getting out there and looking for her, even if it didn't turn up such positive results. Also good to see Pietro again and get some stuff with Ren and Nora, they deserve more focus but it's rather difficult to juggle all of these characters sometimes. 
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being the bestest. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being so amazing.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	36. Chapter 36

With her efforts to locate Neo stymied, Weiss threw herself into the missions she was assigned. The violence gave her a welcome respite from her dark thoughts about Neo and everything else that was going on. It was very much needed, since her worries about Neo had only compounded after her expedition down into Mantle. It was a horrible thing to think, but it was the only answer she could think of. Neo was killing again, and Weiss suspected that all of the deaths of Atlesians were all her fault.

She’d told Ruby about what had transpired down in Mantle when she got back from her search. Weiss had hoped that Ruby would disagree with her, that Neo wouldn’t do such a thing, but it had been her idea in the first place, and she regretfully agreed with Weiss’ theory after first reprimanding her for disobeying orders.

They’d briefly discussed whether they should share this theory with the General, but Ruby had come down and said that, so long as it was just a theory, they shouldn’t tell Ironwood. Weiss was inclined to agree, even if it meant holding onto yet another secret.

It was hard though. No matter who she was with, the things she wasn’t supposed to tell them swam to the forefront of her mind. They were supposed to be learning from Ozpin’s example and trusting people, and though it seemed that for some reason everyone trusted her with their secrets, they didn’t trust each other.

Perhaps the person with whom the secrets weighed most heavily on Weiss was whenever she was with Ruby, which was most of the time. Every night when she crawled into bed beside her partner, guilt would churn in Weiss’ stomach and she forced herself not to spill everything she’d been forced to keep from her. Except that made her feel even worse than before, what sort of girlfriend was she keeping things like this from Ruby? They were supposed to be able to share everything, and yet here Weiss was, holding back Not-Penny’s real identity and Yang’s secret about her mother.

Weiss didn’t know what to do, so she just kept going through the motions, waiting for something to give. But after almost a week of no change, save for Oscar finally asking to be moved to a different room, Weiss finally got up the resolve to force the change herself.

Thus Weiss found herself out of breath as she ran after Not-Penny across the rooftops of Mantle. She wasn’t sure what possessed her to volunteer to join Not-Penny in her patrolling of Mantle, but the robot had next to no time off. It seemed that General Ironwood, in his infinite wisdom, had concluded that because she was a robot, Not-Penny needed less rest than the organic members of their group.

Out of all of them, Ruby had been the least content with this conclusion, and surprisingly had questioned the General on his decision, but he’d just argued that Not-Penny only needed an hour of downtime to fully recharge, so it made the most sense to keep their defenses as constant as possible.

Ruby had tried to argue that Penny was still a person who deserved to relax, but the argument had fallen on deaf ears and Not-Penny had continued to patrol almost constantly. Weiss honestly had no idea how anyone could not think of Not-Penny as a person. She was even more of a person to Weiss than Penny had been, though she couldn’t put it into words or explain it fully.

Perhaps it was people refusing to see her as a person that was pushing Not-Penny away from expressing herself as an individual, separate from her sister. Of course this was all speculation, fueled by a lack of oxygen to Weiss’ brain as she struggled to keep up.

Eventually, Weiss gave up on her miserable attempts at parkour and summoned a Manticore to ride upon. She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t done this in the first place, but it made traversing the Mantle skyline a lot easier. In a matter of a few seconds, she’d caught up to Not-Penny as they flew toward the other side of the city, where there’d been reports of damages to the wall.

“How are you coping?” Weiss called over to Not-Penny as she flew alongside the robot once she’d caught her breath and was no longer gasping like a fish.

“Coping with what?” Not-Penny asked, slowing down a little so she could talk properly to Weiss without the sound of the wind drowning out her words.

“Having to be out on patrol all the time. It occurred to me that Ruby and the others stood up for you, but we never asked how you felt about it.” Weiss elaborated and Not-Penny looked away, humming faintly to herself.

“I don’t really know. I like being the protector of Mantle and being helpful, but I suppose having some time to myself would also be nice.” She finally replied, beginning her descent towards the wall. “I haven’t had any off time since I was activated.”

“Really?” Weiss blinked incredulously. She hadn’t known it was that bad for Penny.

“Yes, I’ve been ever so busy.” A small frown crossed Not-Penny’s face. “I hadn’t even had the time to talk to anyone other than the General, your sister and my father until you arrived.”

“That really can’t be healthy for you.” Concern grew in Weiss’ chest as she watched Not-Penny land upon the wall, her Manticore only a few steps behind. “You need people to talk to.”

“It’s better this way though. The fewer people I talk to, the less likely it is they’ll work out I’m not who they think I am.” Not-Penny explained patiently as Weiss slipped down from her summon’s back and bade it to follow them as they began to walk along the perimeter wall.

“If you say so…” Weiss agreed half-heartedly, but it seemed Not-Penny had better social sense than her sister as she gave Weiss a look.

“I know you don’t think it’s a good idea for me to let them all think I’m Penny, but it is for the best in the long run.”

“For you or for them?” Not-Penny opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by a loud growling from down below. Looking over the wall, They saw a small pack of Sabyrs clawing at the metal, trying to break in. “Let’s table this for a moment.” Weiss said, drawing Penny Dreadful and hopping over the edge of the wall.

It would have been more practical to just fire upon the Grimm from above, but Weiss was far more comfortable with close combat than hanging back. Flaring out her wings as she fell, Weiss landed in the middle of the pack with a thud and immediately leaped into action.

Two Sabyrs were bisected before the pack could react to Weiss’ presence in their midst, and the first one to throw itself at her was caught mid-air by her Manticore, which had followed her down the wall.

“It doesn’t matter what I want.” Weiss glanced up to see Not-Penny swooping down as well, neatly slicing through more of the Sabyrs as she descended. “I don’t matter.”

“I thought I said we were going to table this?” Weiss flicked her wrist at another Sabyr, a glyph spinning into life and launching a fireball at it.

“I’d rather get it over with now, and this isn’t too much of a challenge.” Not-Penny said, gesturing with her hands and sending several swords slicing through the air at the remaining Sabyrs, slicing them to pieces that began to dissolve into smoke as Weiss stood up and sheathed her sword.

“If you insist, then fine. I think you do matter.” Weiss gestured for her Manticore to pick her up and flew up to the top of the wall again, Not-Penny close behind.

“You can think that all you want, it doesn’t change the fact that I don’t matter. Penny mattered, that’s why they made me.” Not-Penny refused to look at Weiss as her swords folded up and tucked away. “They wanted her. They didn’t even bother asking who  _ I _ am.” Not-Penny paused for a moment, looking up at Weiss briefly. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

“No, don’t be sorry.” Not-Penny tried to look away again, but Weiss ducked around to keep eye contact. “Pen-. No, I’m not going to call you that anymore. Just tell me what you want, please.” Weiss implored as Not-Penny shuffled uncomfortably on the spot before striding away along the wall.

“We have a patrol to complete, we should keep going.” Weiss was forced to jog a little to keep up with Not-Penny’s fast pace as she walked along the wall, looking down occasionally to check for damage or Grimm. “And you should still call me Penny, it’s my name.”

“No, it’s not! You told me it wasn’t over a week ago.” Weiss insisted as she continued to run after Not-Penny. “Just talk to me, please.”

Not-Penny suddenly stopped in her tracks and Weiss nearly ran into her. “Why do you even care so much?” She asked, not turning to face Weiss. “You didn’t even like my sister, so why are you so invested in me?”

Weiss flailed for an answer, unsure of what to say. She couldn’t very well say that this was so she could finally stop hiding what she knew from the others, even if it was true. “I… I don’t know.” Weiss finally admitted, unable to come up with a proper response. “I just know that I do care, and it’s not fair for you to keep doing this to yourself.”

“Maybe it isn’t, but fairness doesn’t come into the equation.” Not-Penny started walking again, once again leaving Weiss struggling to keep up with her unexpectedly fast pace. “My duty is what matters, and if I need to be Penny to do those duties, then so be it.”

“You know, you really don’t sound like Penny at all when you talk like that.” Weiss commented, giving Not-Penny pause and she came to a halt.

“What do you mean?”

“Penny was always relentlessly positive and optimistic about everything, it was actually kind of grating.” Weiss shrugged as Not-Penny turned to face her. “Not to mention how rebellious she was.”

“Rebellious? Really?” Not-Penny looked curiously at Weiss, who snorted.

“You have all her memories, don’t you? Don’t you remember how she snuck out to explore Vale and met Ruby?” Not-Penny nodded slowly. “And then ended up befriending her, even though she wasn’t supposed to?”

“I do remember her doing that.” She mumbled slowly, her brow scrunched up in thought. “It’s quite disconcerting remembering things that Penny did first hand.”

“I can only imagine.” Weiss said sympathetically. “But I can guarantee that if she was in your position, she’d be questioning her orders and wondering why she didn’t get to be her own person.”

“You really think she would?”

“I don’t know. Penny’s not here anymore, so I can’t ask her.” Weiss shrugged. “But don’t you think she would?”

“Probably, but-.” Not-Penny’s answer was cut off by a loud howling further down the wall. “Let’s continue later.” With a burst of green flame, Not-Penny took off, leaving Weiss to leap onto the back of her Manticore and fly after her.

As one might suspect from the howling, it was a pack of Beowolves, more numerous than the Sabyrs earlier. They’d managed to either find or make a large hole in the wall and about half of the pack had already climbed in.

“You take the ones on the outside.” Not-Penny instructed Weiss, diving down to land on the street and block the path of the invading Grimm. Rolling her eyes at Not-Penny’s presumption, Weiss slid off the back of her Manticore, drawing Penny Dreadful as she fell.

This time she didn’t slow her fall with her wings, and instead landed on the back of one of the Beowulves, blade first. Hopping off the dissolving Grimm, Weiss raised her free hand and snapped her fingers unnecessarily as she conjured a glyph beneath another Beowolf. With a gesture, a column of flames burst out from the ground and incinerated the unfortunate Grimm.

With a flick of the wrist, the cylinders of Weiss’ bracer spun around and locked into Ice Dust. Grinning savagely, she willed the hard-packed snow beneath her to explode upwards, forming vicious spikes that impaled more of the pack.

There was a simplicity in combat, an odd sort of peace and a respite from her thoughts that Weiss had only been able to find in one other place, one she was unwilling to go back to. Instead of finding solace the same way her mother did, Weiss took peace in the swing of her blade and explosions of fire and ice she summoned.

Reversing her grip on her sword, she thrust it behind her, skewering a Beowolf that tried to sneak up on her, a savage glee in her smile as she watched her Manticore tear another one limb from limb. Another glyph, another explosion, another Grimm annihilated. Before long, all the Beowolves on the outside of the wall were reduced to smoking corpses, and Weiss ran for the hole in the wall to see if Not-Penny needed any assistance.

Her help wasn’t required though, as when Weiss stepped through, she found Not-Penny had already finished her Grimm and was busy inspecting the hole in the wall.

“I’ve logged the damage with the maintenance teams, but I’m not sure if they’ll be able to patch the breach any time soon.” She told Weiss as the Faunus sheathed her weapon and joined her. “They’re stretched thin and don’t have many resources to work with.”

“Because they’re all being diverted to the tower.” Weiss frowned, taking in the damage for herself. It wasn’t too bad she supposed, but any way for Grimm to get into the city was bad. “Is it safe for the people in Mantle for Ironwood to do this?”

“Not really… But I’m here to protect them, so a few holes in the wall should be fine!” Weiss wasn’t sure who Not-Penny was trying to convince, Weiss or herself.

“If you say so.” Weiss sighed, shaking her head. “Anyway, continuing our discussion from earlier, don’t you think Penny would be putting everyone else before herself.”

“No, she probably wouldn’t. But she should have.” Not-Penny insisted firmly, holding out a hand to Weiss who took it and allowed Not-Penny to fly her back onto the wall. “Besides, back then Penny had the luxury of selfishness. She didn’t have the entire kingdom relying upon her to protect it.”

“Selfishness isn’t a luxury, you should do things for yourself and just yourself.” Weiss reiterated her point as they continued along the wall. “And is it really so selfish to want to be your own person? I’m not even telling you to abandon your duties or anything like that. Just to be yourself and be called by your own name.”

“... I don’t even know what I’d want my name to be.” Not-Penny admitted, hanging her head and Weiss reached out to pat her on the shoulder.

“Why not try thinking about it? See what feels right.” She suggested and Not-Penny nodded.

“I think I’d like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was about time we checked back in with Not-Penny. She's been needing a friend like Weiss for a while now, even if her intentions aren't the purest, she's still trying to help her which is what really matters, right? Also now maybe she'll finally have a name so we can all stop referring to her as Not-Penny, because it's not good for her to be defined by who she isn't and having a name of her own will almost certainly help with her defining who she is.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being hella cute and awesome. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being simply amazing.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	37. Chapter 37

After she’d finished her patrol with Not-Penny, Weiss had hoped to get just a bit of time to herself. It felt as though she’d been constantly surrounded by people ever since getting to Atlas, and it was starting to get to her. Hopefully, she could find somewhere to just sit on her own and process the absolute mess her life had become in the last couple of weeks.

Alas, her plans were scuppered the moment she set foot back in Atlas. “Weiss! There you are!” Before she could say anything, Weiss found herself grabbed by the wrist and pulled into the academy in a whirl of red and white petals.

“Ack! Ruby!” She yelped as they came to a halt in front of the lifts. “What was that for?” She scowled at her girlfriend, who winced and grinned at Weiss sheepishly.

“Sorry, Weiss, I needed your help with something and I got a bit carried away.” She explained and Weiss sighed.

“And what was it you needed help with?”

“Oh, Harriet and Marrow agreed to help me with working out what my semblance actually does and to test its limits.” Weiss nodded slowly as she followed Ruby into the lift as it arrived, and she pressed the button for the training rooms’ floor.

“That tracks, so why do you need me?” Weiss asked as the lift whisked them up the tower.

“Well, you know how I can bring people with me when I go all speedy?” Weiss nodded, having just been on the receiving end of it. “I think that might have something to do with how it works, and if not, I do still need to practice with it, and I’d rather practice carrying you than anyone else.”

Biting back a sigh, Weiss gave Ruby a small smile. “Okay, sure, I’ll help.”

“Thanks, princess.” Ruby broke into a bright smile and pulled Weiss into a tight hug, kissing her chastely whist Weiss instinctively wrapped her wings around Ruby. Just as she did so, however, the lift came to a halt and opened up to reveal a couple of members of the office staff just as the two broke apart from their embrace. “Oh, sorry.” Ruby stepped back to allow them in, but one shook his head.

“We’ll just wait for the next one.” He said in a clipped tone, turning away and heading over to one of the other lifts as the doors closed again.

“What was that about?” Ruby asked in confusion as Weiss sighed.

“Maybe the wings, maybe the blatant homosexuality, who knows?” She shook her head, shifting her cloak to hide her wings. “I did tell you that Atlas isn’t exactly accepting of people who don’t conform.”

“But nobody’s been like that before.” Ruby said, her eyes wide with sadness. “Ironwood and the Ace-Ops have all been fine.”

“Clearly we’ve been spending time with different people.” Weiss grumbled as the lift reached their floor and they stepped out. “Did you miss all the names Elm has called Marrow? All the cracks she and some of the others have made about him being part-dog.”

“But those were just jokes, right?” Ruby asked, though she didn’t sound too sure herself. “They don’t really mean it.”

“They still said it though.” Weiss said darkly as they headed down the corridor. “Intent doesn’t matter so much as actions do, and their actions paint them as both casually racist and complicit in it as well.”

“I never really thought about it like that.” Ruby hung her head shamefully. “I’m sorry, I really should have realised.”

“If it’s any consolation, I didn’t either, until it started directly affecting me.” Weiss sighed, shaking her head, shame pricking at her as well. “It’s a bit of a learning curve sometimes.”

“Well, I’m not going to just ignore it anymore.” Ruby said confidently, perking up again. “And thank you for explaining it to me.”

“Blake does a better job at it than I do.” Weiss admitted with a wry smile. “Benefits of being a part of a civil rights movement for years.”

“I think you did a great job.” Ruby said supportively as she came to a halt in front of one of the training room doors. “They said they’d be waiting in here.”

Keying in the access code, Ruby opened the door to near pandemonium. Marrow was standing in the middle of the room firing his rifle wildly at a blur of electricity that shot around the space, occasionally darting in to slam into him.

“Come on, Pup, keep up!” The blur called out, and Weiss shot Ruby a meaningful look. Ruby winced a little as the pair entered the room, the door closing behind them as Marrow seemed to finally give up his futile attempts to shoot Harriet and pointed his finger at her and snapped it.

“Stay!” The blur came to a sudden stop to fully reveal a gagging Harriet, who promptly lost her lunch on the floor.

“Lovely.” Weiss sighed, rolling her eyes and carefully stepping around Harriet and the small puddle she’d made. Despite her disgust at what had just happened, Weiss couldn’t help but feel a small amount of smugness at what was pretty much karmic justice for Harriet’s earlier words.

“You try decelerating from high speeds to zero without expecting it.” Harriet scowled at Weiss as she wiped off her mouth. “And Marrow, why didn’t you do that in the first place? In fact, why do you never do that in the first place?”

“Lots of reasons. Takes a lot of concentration, only works on a few targets at once, massive drain on my aura, take your pick.” Marrow shrugged, stowing his rifle on his back and pulling out his scroll. “Hey, can we get a cleaner in Training Room 21, please? Harriet had a bit of an accident.”

“Don’t phrase it like that!” The woman shouted indignantly, storming over to Marrow and yelling into his scroll. “I was sick all over the floor because _some asshole_ stopped me in the middle of my running!”

“Hey, you were the one who asked for it.” Marrow pointed out unapologetically with a shrug as he put his scroll away again. “Anyway, enough with that, we were supposed to be helping out Ruby with her Semblance.”

“Alright, fine, but you’re going to pay for that later, Pup.” Harriet pointed a menacing finger in Marrow’s face before walking over to Ruby, who’d been standing a little awkwardly off to the side. “So, you ready to put your Semblance to the test, Little Red?”

“I am, but can you please not call me that?” Ruby said as the four walked towards the back of the large room, away from the puddle of vomit.

“Why not? You’re little and you’re red, it makes perfect sense.” Harriet said, seemingly surprised by Ruby’s rejection of the nickname.

“It’s what Neo calls me.” Ruby explained. “So only she’s allowed to call me that, just like I’m the only one allowed to call Weiss Princess.”

“Ruby!” Weiss hissed, blushing bright red and shooting a look over at the two Ace-Ops. Marrow gave no real indication of what he thought of this, but Weiss swore she saw an uncomfortable frown cross Harriet’s face. “Don’t tell them things like that.”

“Sorry, Weiss.” Ruby apologised with a sheepish grin, leaning in to bump her shoulder against Weiss’

“Alright, we get it, you two are very gay. Can we get on with this now please?” Harriet interrupted, sounding more than a little annoyed as she rolled her eyes at the young couple. “Okay then, let’s see what you’ve really got, red.”

“Sure, what do you want me to do?” Ruby asked, pulling away from Weiss and bounding eagerly over to Harriet.

“Just show me what you’re capable of. I only got a quick glimpse back at the mines.” Harriet instructed, and Ruby nodded rapidly, stepping back, already vibrating with excitement. Ducking down and flashing Weiss a confident smile, Ruby launched herself forwards and exploded into a burst of petals.

Shooting off at high speed, the blur of red that was Ruby zoomed around the room, avoiding the janitor who had just entered and back to the spot she’d launched from.

“So what did you think?” She asked, bouncing excitedly in front of Harriet who frowned thoughtfully, tapping her chin.

“Well, I was right about it not being a speed type Semblance.” She said, now walking around Ruby and inspecting her closely. “Do your feet actually touch the floor when you do that?”

“Huh?”

“It looked more like you were flying than running or anything like that.” Harriet explained, returning to Ruby’s front and continuing to examine her.

“Oh, maybe? I don’t really know.” Ruby shrugged. “I don’t really think about what I’m doing, I just do it.”

“I figured as much. You always struck me as a doing kind of person rather than the thinking sort.” Weiss bristled a little at the backhanded compliment, but Ruby either didn’t notice or she took it in stride.

“Oh! I can do it in mid-air too!” She announced with a proud smile and she looked over at Weiss. I’ll show you. Weiss, can you give me a boost?” Weiss nodded and ducked down, lacing her fingers together.

With a careful exhale, Ruby readied herself and then darted forward and hopped up, planting her foot in the support Weiss had created, and with a heave, Weiss launched her girlfriend into the air, where she once again burst into petals and zoomed around in the air for a few seconds before coming back down to the ground with a thump.

“Definitely not a running thing, then.” Harriet snarked as Ruby got to her feet and smoothed out her clothes. “I’m going to be honest here, red, I have no idea what’s going on with you and your Semblance.”

“Oh…” Ruby’s face fell in disappointment. “I see.”

“Hey, just because I don’t know what’s going on doesn’t mean we can’t do other stuff like work out what your limits are.” Harriet said, reaching out and patting Ruby a little awkwardly on the shoulder.

“Okay, sure, we can do that.” Ruby brightened up a little, her smile returning as she started to bounce on the spot in excitement once more. “So what should we do first?”

“Well, why don’t we see just how fast you can go?” Ruby cocked her head curiously as Harriet’s grin turned sharp. “How about a little race?” Weiss wasn’t sure if Ruby’s eager smile could get any wider as she nodded vigorously and looked over at Marrow.

“Yes! Marrow, can you set it up for us?” The dog Faunus nodded, pulling out his scroll to tap away at it and reorganise the training room into a race course. Weiss imagined Yang would probably have a fit if she saw the training room was app-controlled. Then again, she probably already had seen and had another one of her small rants about apps controlling everything.

A couple of minutes after he started the course was set. The moving blocks that emerged from the floor marked out the path the two racers were to take, and they both set up at the start line.

“Better make it a few laps, don’t want this to be over so quickly.” Harriet told Marrow as she dropped into her starting stance, crouched down with her hands just behind the starting line.

“Okay, sure.” Marrow sighed, rolling his eyes as Ruby got ready beside Harriet. “Five laps of the course. Ready, set, go!” Weiss staggered back a little as the slipstream of the two speedsters took off caught her and nearly knocked her over.

Weiss could barely keep track of the two as they shot around the track, completing the first lap in a matter of seconds. “Maybe five laps wasn’t enough.” Weiss suggested as the pair blew past them for a second time.

“Maybe, I’ve never seen Harriet really let loose before.” Marrow admitted scratching his head. “It looks like she’s in the lead though.” Sure enough, the electrified blur that was Harriet was starting to pull ahead of Ruby, and less than a minute later, she came skidding to a halt, followed very quickly by Ruby.

“Ha… Ha… I knew… I was faster.” Harriet panted, her exhaustion not impeding her smugness. Ruby didn’t look quite as tired though, and she didn’t seem at all disappointed that she’d lost.

“That was great!” She cheered, somehow still having enough energy to dance around Weiss excitedly. “Super fun too, oh Weiss we should see how fast I can go if you hit me with a time dilation glyph.”

“Maybe wait for a bit to catch your breath first.” Weiss suggested with an indulgent smile, and Ruby nodded happily before skipping over to Harriet to pester her whilst Marrow sidled over.

“She’s rather… energetic, isn’t she?”

“She can be. I’m glad she is too. She’s been under a lot of stress lately.” Weiss admitted, though she didn’t mention how much stress she was under that was still bubbling under the surface.

“Yeah, we all need to be able to decompress sometimes. I don’t know how the General does it. He’s gotta be on the ball all the time and be the one in charge and make all the decisions.” Marrow sighed, shaking his head. “I could never do that. Other people say it’s ‘lack of ambition’ or whatever, but I know I won’t be nearly as good at leading as other people.”

“Makes sense. I don’t envy Ruby all that much either.” A wry smile crossed Weiss’ face as she remembered how angry she’d been at not being made leader. She was almost glad now that she hadn’t been put in charge.

“Weiss, I’m ready!” Ruby called over, grinning madly and getting herself ready for take off once more.

“Duty calls.” Weiss sighed, twisting Lilie around to Lightning Dust and aiming it at Ruby. “Get ready!” With a pulse of aura, Weiss twisted the Dust to her will, forming a glyph beneath Ruby, infusing her with its power. After a couple of seconds, Weiss relaxed and stepped back to watch the show.

Ruby seemed to move in the times when Weiss was blinking. She seemed to almost teleport around the room, the only evidence of her passage being the presence of the petals that she left behind. After about half a minute of this, Ruby came to a halt back with them again.

“Guess you really can go fast, huh, red?” Harriet commented, smoothing out her hair, which had been blown out of place by the speed at which Ruby ran. “I reckon you’d probably outrun anything, other than me, of course.”

“Heh, yeah…” For some reason Ruby didn’t seem all that happy with the praise she got from Harriet. Before she could answer any further though, the door to the training room opened and a pair of women walked in.

“Oh, sorry, didn’t know this one was being used.” The shorter of the two called out to the group already in there, and Weiss was surprised to see she had a pair of sheep ears adorned with lots of bits of metal. “We’ll just find another o-.” She paused mid-word as she focused on Marrow, her friendly expression morphing into something rather distasteful. “Oh, Marrow, hey.”

“Fiona, fancy seeing you here.” Marrow’s voice was rather cold, and he started over to the two women who were still standing by the doorway. “Get tired of Mantle?”

“Nope, couldn’t be happier down there. Unlike you, I remember where I came from.” Fiona shot back, her arms folded whilst her companion stood protectively behind her.

“Believe me, I haven’t forgotten at all.” Marrow folded his arms as well, setting up a stand off with the other Faunus. Weiss, Ruby and Harriet approached the confrontation as well, Harriet standing in solidarity with her teammate whilst the other two stood off to the side.

“Sure you haven’t.” Fiona rolled her eyes. “Well, I can see you’re busy here, so I’ll leave you to it.” She turned to leave, but paused just before she left and looked over to Weiss. “Oh, I love your wing clasps, by the way.”

“Thanks, your piercings look good too.” Weiss replied automatically, and the sheep Faunus smiled, wiggling her ears.

“Thanks, made ‘em myself.” With a small wave, she left the room with the taller woman in tow, the door closing behind them.

“So what was that about?” Ruby asked, looking between Harriet and Marrow who still looked rather unhappy.

“Nothing, just an old friend. At least I thought she was.” Marrow sighed, shaking his head and walking back towards the centre of the room. “Let’s get back to it, shall we?” Weiss exchanged a look with Ruby, but neither decided to pursue the issue and they followed after to continue practicing with Ruby’s semblance.

* * *

Weiss still wasn’t all that used to sleeping with just Ruby. She really did miss the feeling of Neo snuggled in on her other side, but she was able to deal with her absence for now. What she was unable to cope with was the absence of Ruby as well, which explained why she woke up in the middle of the night.

Rolling over in search of her girlfriend, she found the bed beside her was empty. Blinking in confusion, Weiss rolled the other way and crawled out of bed. There was no sign of Ruby in the room and her slippers were missing.

Frowning, Weiss pulled on her own slippers and left the still snoring Yang and Blake whilst she went off in search of Ruby. She wasn’t really sure of where she should even start looking as she padded down the halls and eventually walked into the chamber with all the lifts. Looking up at the displays, they were all down in the administrative sections of the tower, except for one which was a few storeys up.

Deciding that was probably the best place to find her missing Ruby, Weiss hit the call button and rode up to the floor. As she got there, she realised why Ruby would have come here. It was the only floor with a balcony, which was quite popular during the daytime with the admin staff who wanted a breath of fresh air in the middle of their day stuck in offices and control centres.

Quietly, Weiss pushed open the door and walked out into the chill night air. She had to wrap her wings around herself to keep warm as she looked around for Ruby. After a short bit of searching, Weiss eventually found her leaning up against a railing and looking out over the city of Atlas.

“Liebling?” Ruby started at Weiss’ soft call for her and looked around to see her girlfriend approaching.

“Oh, hey, Weiss.” Ruby mumbled, turning back to continue looking out over the city whilst Weiss joined her at the railing.

“What are you doing out here?” Weiss asked quietly, reaching out with a wing to wrap it around Ruby.

“Couldn’t sleep.” Sighing, Ruby slumped down on the railing. “Nightmares.”

“Didn’t know you got those.”

“I used to get them a lot more frequently after… after Beacon.” Ruby admitted, shifting to the side to press into Weiss’ embrace. “They got a lot better after you came back, but I still get them sometimes.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Weiss offered, a little sad that Ruby hadn’t told her this before. She could have helped.

“Not really…” Ruby let out another deep sigh. “I just feel bad. I thought I was doing better. I didn’t expect it all to get brought back up with just a couple of sentences.”

“Did someone say something to you?” Weiss frowned. “Who was it and what do I need to do to them?”

“They didn’t mean it like that.” Ruby said quickly before Weiss could go storming off to hunt someone down. “I just…” Ruby rested her chin morosely on the railing. “When Harriet commented how fast I was, how I could outrun anything. All I could think of was how I wasn’t fast enough to save Pyrrha or Penny.”

“Oh…” Weiss reached out with her hand as well to take Ruby’s and squeezed it gently. “I’m sorry, Liebling.”

“If I’d been just a bit faster, I could have stopped the match. I could have made it up the tower before Cinder…” Ruby sniffled loudly.

“Ruby, please don’t do this to yourself.” Weiss tried to talk Ruby out of her depression, but the younger girl wasn’t listening.

“It’s my fault that Pyrrha’s dead. I should have been faster. And even though we managed to get Penny back, and I am so so happy we did, I still let her get killed the first time.” Weiss felt her heart sink a little at the mention of Penny.

“Ruby, it’s not your fault.”

“Yes it is!” Ruby burst out standing up and staring at Weiss with tearful eyes. “If it’s not my fault, then why do I feel so guilty about it?”

“That’s not how guilt works, Ruby, you know that.”

“I felt a bit better when Penny came back, but I still have this weight on me, that I failed Pyrrha. Every time I look at Jaune or Ren or Nora, I just feel so guilty.” Ruby confessed tearfully, so Weiss did the only thing she thought she could, she reached out and pulled the upset girl into a tight hug.

“Ruby, I promise it’s not your fault. I promise.” She told her girlfriend softly, praying that she would listen to her. As she stroked Ruby’s back and rubbed comforting circles though, Weiss’ mind was racing. She’d had no idea Ruby had been carrying all this guilt over Penny and Pyrrha, and how much finding Not-Penny had alleviated that. Even worse, Weiss had no idea what to do about it.

“Ruby, if you ever feel like this, please tell me, okay?” Weiss pressed gentle kisses into Ruby’s coarse hair, thankfully free of the ridiculous amounts of hair gel she wore during the day. “Promise me.”

“I promise.” Ruby sniffed, wiping her face on Weiss’ sleep shirt. “I’m sorry, I’ve got so much and so many people relying on me.”

“Ruby, it’s okay for you to take a break, to let other people shoulder those responsibilities. You’re not alone.” Weiss told her firmly, and Ruby nodded against Weiss’ chest before pulling away.

“Okay, I will, Weiss. Sorry for making you come out here for me.”

“Any time, Liebling, any time.” Weiss said, turning and looking out across the city. “Besides, it’s a lovely night. Nice and peaceful.” As soon as she said that, however, there was a loud whirring of engines from down below, and Weiss and Ruby took a couple of steps back as an airship rose into view, hovering before them. Weiss was prepared to grab Ruby and run, when she caught sight of the pilot through the airship’s tinted window.

“Neo?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> She's back! At last best girl has rejoined the story, I missed Neo and her shenanigans. In the meantime, poor Ruby isn't doing as well as she'd like everyone to think. Hopefully with Neo back she'll get back to a healthier place where she's not blaming herself for everything that's gone wrong.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being really cute and awesome. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and just being the bestest.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	38. Chapter 38

“Neo?!” Ruby joined Weiss in gaping at the airship as it hovered in the air before them. Turning so it was side on, the door opened and Neo poked her head out of the cockpit and gestured for them to get in.

“Neo, what are you doing?!” Weiss demanded once the shock had worn off. “We have been looking for you for days now and you just show up now?” There was a pause, then Neo stomped out of the cockpit and began signing at her girlfriends irritably.

_ ‘I’m trying to rescue you. One woman rescue ops aren’t easy, especially when you’ve got people after you, so get in!’  _ Neo rolled her eyes and repeated her gesture for her girlfriends to get in.

“If you’d been paying attention to what’s been going on and didn’t just vanish off the face of Remnant, you’d know we don’t need rescuing.” Weiss responded, maybe she was being a little harsh on Neo with her words, but her relief at Neo’s return was tempered by her annoyance that it had taken this long.

_ ‘What?’ _ Neo looked thoroughly confused.

“We’ve been working with Ironwood and the Ace-Ops pretty much since we got here.” Ruby explained. She seemed to be vibrating on the spot in excitement at finally having Neo back. “Voluntarily too.”

_ ‘You’re working for General Fascist?!’  _ Neo signed incredulously, her eyes wide.  _ ‘Without being forced to?’ _

“Neo, just land the airship, we’ll meet you and explain everything.” Ruby implored of her girlfriend, but the diminutive girl didn’t move.

_ ‘How do I know this isn’t some sort of trap?’ _

“If you thought it was, you wouldn’t have shown up in the first place, Süße.” Weiss pointed out, rolling her eyes. “Please stop the dramatics and land. I miss kissing my girlfriend.” Neo hesitated for a moment, then vanished into the cockpit again, the door closing. With a roar of engines, the airship descended out of sight, and Weiss and Ruby hurried over to the edge of the balcony to watch it fly down towards the landing pads.

“Weiss, come on!” Ruby squealed in excitement, grabbing her girlfriend by the wrist and dragging her back inside. “She’s back! She’s really back!” Ruby was unable to contain her excitement as she hammered the call button for the lift.

“Ruby I-.” Weiss tried to speak, but the door to one of the lifts opened and Weiss was yanked bodily into it, cutting off her words.

“It feels like it’s been ages, and now she’s finally come back to us.” Ruby sniffed loudly, wiping away tears of joy. “I missed her so much.”

“I missed her too, Liebling.” Weiss tried to be as overjoyed as Ruby was at Neo’s return, but there was that annoying part of her brain that kept reminding her of all the attendant issues they would have to deal with. “But what are we going to tell Ironwood?”

“Huh?”

“About what Neo’s done, where she’s been.” Weiss elaborated. “Do you really think the General’s just going to let Neo go after those murders?”

“We don’t know for sure that she did those though.” Ruby argued, although doubt was starting to creep into her tone. “And if she did, do we have to tell him?”

“So we’re just going to hide something else from our allies?”

“Do you want Neo to get arrested and locked up, Weiss?” Ruby raised her eyebrows as Weiss shook her head vehemently.

“Of course not!”

“Then we don’t tell him about this.” Ruby looked more than a little conflicted over this, but Weiss could see the conviction in her eyes. “We don’t know it’s been Neo doing all of this. It might just be someone else, the one who’s been killing off Ironwood’s critics.”

Weiss frowned doubtfully at that theory. It was one they’d both considered and had dismissed as unlikely before. It felt as though Ruby was scrabbling for excuses as she went on. “And she’s not been in her right state of mind. Now that she’s back, we can get her back to normal.”

“I suppose…” Weiss wished she didn’t feel like this, but she just couldn’t escape the doubt in her mind that something would go wrong if they hid yet another thing from Ironwood. For people who were trying to avoid following Ozpin’s example, they were doing a pretty shit job of it at times.

The lift came to a halt, and before the doors could fully open, Weiss was yanked through them in a whirl of rose petals. It seemed that, even with Weiss voicing her doubts, Ruby was still ecstatic that Neo was back.

Together they flew down the corridors and out onto the landing pad where Neo’s airship sat, with the girl herself waiting by it with several unconscious guards lying at her feet.

“Neo!” Ruby screeched as she and Weiss rematerialised and slammed into Neo, knocking her to the ground with a painful thud. “I missed you so so much!” Ruby wrapped her arms around Neo’s waist and shoved her face into the crook of her neck. Weiss, for her part, latched onto Neo’s arm and refused to let go.

They stayed like that for several minutes, during which Weiss started crying as well. She’d missed Neo so much and she could hardly believe that she was finally back. It had only been a couple of weeks, but it had been far too long.

Eventually though, they had to get up, and Weiss was forced to release Neo’s arm so she could talk to them.  _ ‘So what’s this about working for General Fascist?’ _

“It’s complicated.” Ruby sighed, scratching the side of her head awkwardly. “It kinda is what we came here to do, but…”

_ ‘He’s not all that keen on the whole civil liberties thing.’ _ Neo signed with a raised eyebrow.

“He’s not that bad…” Ruby tried to defend the general as Neo’s other eyebrow rose to join the other.

_ ‘Really? Because crashing in Mantle for the last while has shown me things have not gotten better down there since I’ve been gone, and a lot of that is his fault.’ _ She argued back, and Weiss tacitly agreed with her, but remained silent as Ruby continued to try to defend Ironwood.

“He’s got a lot of difficult decisions to make. It’s not easy to be in charge and be the one everyone’s relying on to do the right thing.” Neo raised her hands to continue arguing, but Weiss stepped in between her two girlfriends.

“Okay, that’s enough.” She told them raising her hands. She had enough weighing her down without this argument getting out of hand. “We can talk about this in the morning. It is really late, I’m sure we’re all tired and I really want to snuggle up with my girlfriends right now.”

Ruby nodded in agreement and Neo did as well after a few moments. Reaching out with her wings, Weiss wrapped them around the other two and gently guided them into the building, ignoring the guards who still laid unconscious on the ground. Knowing the sorts of people who ended up working for the Atlas military, they were almost certainly some of the great many who’d muttered a slur at Weiss as she passed them in the corridors.

Together, the three returned to the lifts and rode them back up to the dorm floors, Ruby yawning loudly as they did. Weiss was also starting to feel her eyes starting to droop. The adrenaline that had been rushing through her with her excitement at Neo’s return was fading fast.

Blake and Yang still slept soundly when they returned to their room, snuggled up with each other in bed, which Neo eyed curiously.

“They’re dating again.” Weiss answered the unasked question, heading over to the wardrobe and pulling out some of her spare sleep clothes for Neo. “About time too.” Neo nodded with a mischievous grin as she started shedding her clothes shamelessly in the middle of the room.

“Neo!” Weiss hissed, aghast, turning away quickly to preserve Neo’s modesty. Out of the corner of her eye though, she noticed Ruby made no such move, and with a huff, Weiss reached out with a wing to cover Ruby’s eyes.

“Awwwww, Weiss.” She grumbled, but didn’t make a move to keep looking as Weiss held out the clothes she’d found at arm’s length for Neo to take. She refused to turn around until there was a tap on her shoulder, and she looked to find Neo in the slightly too large clothes, smirking up at them.

“You really don’t have any shame, do you?” Weiss asked, shaking her head as she collected up Neo’s abandoned clothes and gave them a quick sniff, which she regretted. “And I expect you haven’t changed your clothes at all either.”

_ ‘I was on the run from the authorities and was busy trying to work out how to save you lot. I was too busy to do laundry.’  _ Neo pouted as Weiss carried the clothes into the bathroom and dropped them in the laundry basket.

“Well, you’re here now, and you are taking a shower in the morning.” Weiss insisted, walking over to the bed and climbing in. “Just be glad that you’re just cute enough that I can put up with a bit of body odour for tonight.”

Grinning impishly, Neo joined Weiss in bed, followed shortly by Ruby, who crawled in on Neo’s other side, latching on like a koala. “I really did miss you, Sweet Pea.” She mumbled as she got comfortable.

_ ‘I missed you too, Little Red.’ _ Neo replied, pressing a kiss to Ruby’s forehead. As Weiss snuggled down in their cramped bunk, she felt a hand running over the shaved part of her hair. Cracking an eye open, she saw Neo stroking it gently, before she paused for a moment to sign.

_ ‘It looks good on you, Snowflake. Feels good too.’ _ With a soft smile, Weiss pressed her head a little further into Neo’s hand before she let sleep take her.

* * *

Weiss was unceremoniously dragged from her sleep by a loud pounding on their room door. Sitting up groggily, she winced in pain as her cramped wings flexed and stretched. The loud noise seemed to have awoken her bedmates too, and Ruby, as the closest to the edge, got out and trudged over to the door.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes as two guards stood outside, looking uncharacteristically nervous.

“The base is on high alert. There’s evidence of an infiltrator. The General wants your team to meet him in his office ready for combat ASAP.” One of the soldiers snapped out, and Ruby nodded blearily and closed the door, turning back to the others, Blake and Yang having joined them in the land of the waking by now.

“You heard him, better get dressed.” She told them, wandering over to the dresser and pulling out some clothes as Weiss stifled a yawn and climbed out as well.

“What’s up with you two?” Yang asked curiously as she and Blake got up as well and hurried over to retrieve their hunting gear. “You’re not usually this tired.”

“Late night.” Weiss mumbled, opening up the wardrobe and grabbing one of her shirts off its hanger. If she didn’t get at least six uninterrupted hours, she was basically non-functional before her first coffee.

“Um, girls.” Blake interrupted and they all turned to look at the cat Faunus, who was pointing to Weiss and Ruby’s bunk. “When did Neo get here?” Blinking a couple of times, Weiss’ tired brain finally caught up with everything.

“She got here last night.” Weiss explained as Neo sat up and waved hello to the rather stunned Blake and Yang. “Trying to mount a one woman rescue mission.”

“And how exactly did she try to do this?”

“Airship. She tried to get us from the balcony, but we convinced her to land and that we didn’t need rescuing.” Ruby added, pulling her skirt free from its drawer. There was a loud groan from Yang as she buried her face in her hands.

“Did you not think that maybe a probably stolen airship turning up at the military base might be cause for concern?” She asked in exasperation, and the three girlfriends exchanged looks of dawning horror.

“Oh, shit.” Ruby summed up eloquently and darted over to grab Neo and pull her out of bed. “We need to tell the General right now.” Without waiting for a response from the others, she had already started pulling Neo towards the door.

With nothing else to do, they hurried after their leader and Neo as they rushed to the lifts. They passed by several other soldiers, all of whom looked rather harried and paid the group no mind as they entered the lift atrium and waited impatiently for a lift to arrive.

“Ruby, we haven’t even discussed what we’re going to tell Ironwood about what Neo’s been doing.” Weiss hissed, remembering their conversation in the lift last night. “We haven’t even asked Neo exactly what’s been going on.”

_ ‘What do you mean?’  _ Neo looked more than a little puzzled at the exchange, and Weiss sighed deeply before checking around to make sure nobody was listening in.

“Neo, how many people did you kill?” She asked quietly, and the shorter woman’s eyes widened, though she showed no sign of remorse or regret.

_ ‘Seven, but they weren’t that important, and I doubt anyone will miss the SDC execs.’  _ Weiss let out a quiet groan of frustration that was mimicked by Blake. Weiss didn’t speak until they were safely alone in the lift.

“Ignoring the morality of killing civilians, I highly doubt General Ironwood or anyone else would share your thoughts on the matter.” Weiss sighed, shaking her head. This was exactly the sort of scenario she’d been afraid of.

_ ‘So we just don’t tell him about them then.’  _ Neo shrugged, still completely remorseless.  _ ‘Simple.’ _

“Not simple.” Blake said with a dour tone. “This isn’t like not telling him about Ozpin leaving. Ironwood can definitely find out about this.

_ ‘Then you claim ignorance.’ _ Neo signed nonchalantly.  _ ‘I certainly don’t intend to tell General Fascist, so you lot should stay silent too.’  _ Weiss did not like this plan one bit, but there wasn’t really anything she could do but to go along with Neo’s plan.

Any further discussion was halted when they reached the top floor and spilled out into the atrium, where they found the Ace-Ops hanging around on high-alert.

“What are you lot doing? Don’t you know there’s an alert on?” Harriet asked looking over the group then focusing on Neo. “Wait, isn’t that-?”

“Yes it is, and we need to talk to the General so he can stop the alert.” Ruby rushed out, already pulling Neo up the stairs and into Ironwood’s office. Ironwood was talking urgently to Winter and looked more stressed than Weiss had ever seen him. His eyes flashed angrily as he noticed Ruby and the others still in their sleepwear.

“I thought I asked for you to be combat ready before you came. We’ve been infiltrated!” He growled standing up and glowering at the group.

“We know, sir, it’s our fault.” Ruby spilled out, panting a little as she thrust Neo forward. “She kind of broke in last night.” It took Ironwood a moment to recognise her, but when he did, he let out a very loud groan of frustration.

“The unauthorised airship and my unconscious guards?” He asked and Neo nodded, looking completely unapologetic. With a deep sigh, he sat back down in his chair and pressed a button on his desk. “This is General Ironwood. False alarm, please return to your stations.”

Releasing the button, He rested his head in his hands and took a few deep and calming breaths before speaking again. “Could one of you please explain to me why our missing Fall Maiden decided to break into the academy.”

“She, uh, thought we needed rescuing.” Ruby explained grinning sheepishly as Neo signed to Ironwood.

_ ‘In my defence, last time I saw this lot they were being arrested and thrown into a prison transport.’  _ Neo added, but neither Ironwood nor Winter seemed to understand her.

“She said that, in her defence, the last time she saw us, we were being arrested.” Weiss translated for their benefit.

“She ignored the calls we put out for her.” Ironwood pointed out, and Neo rolled her eyes.

_ ‘All traps.’  _ Neo replied smoothly.  _ ‘Anyway, I’m here now. Neopolitan, Fall Maiden, at your service.’ _ Neo dropped into a curtsey, and if a gesture could be sarcastic, Neo’s little bob oozed it.

“Well, you’re here now.” Ironwood rubbed at his temples, looking exhausted. “There’s a lot we need to catch you up on, but your teammates can fill you in fully later. For now, it’s good to finally have you and the Maiden powers safe, Miss Neopolitan.”

_ ‘And I’m ever so happy to work for you and your oppressive and fascistic regime.’  _ Weiss didn’t translate that last part. Neo didn’t seem to mind though, instead she seemed to be taking a great deal of satisfaction in being able to insult the General to his face without him realising.

“Alright, you’re dismissed. You all should get dressed and then report to Clover so Miss Neopolitan can be debriefed and brought up to speed on our plans.” With that, the General returned to his computer whilst the five young women exited the room, followed by Winter, to Weiss’ surprise.

“Couldn’t you have told us last night that Neopolitan was here?” She asked in exasperation as they made their way to the now deserted lift atrium.

“It was really late, and we thought it could wait until morning.” Weiss said, feeling a little embarrassed she hadn’t even thought of sending a message or anything.

“Well, it’s done now.” Winter shook her head before stepping over to Neo. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Neopolitan. I’ve been interested to meet in person the other young woman who somehow captured my sister’s heart.” Weiss knew that look on Winter’s face. It meant she was sizing a person up. Neo, however, just met Winter’s calculating gaze with a disarmingly charming smile and took Winter’s proffered hand.

“Hopefully we can talk more at a later date. For now though, I have duties to attend to, and some ruffled feathers to smooth about our high alert.” Shooting Weiss another short and disapproving glance, Winter headed back towards the General’s office whilst they entered one of the lifts and started heading back down to the dorms.

_ ‘I think that went pretty well, actually.’ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh Neo, what have you been doing? Unsurprisingly, she's not all that fond of Ironwood, but then again, who would be? But she's officially here now and ready to cause chaos wherever she goes as the plot gets ready to kick back in.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being adorable as fuck. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being hella cute.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	39. Chapter 39

The five trooped back to their room. Their collective mood was unusually sombre except for Neo, who skipped ahead of them with a broad smile.

“I thought you said she’d changed.” Yang hissed to Weiss as they followed the pastel girl back to their room. “That she wasn’t just an unrepentant murderer.”

“She has!” Weiss insisted quietly, ignoring the doubt gnawing at the corners of her mind.

“I don’t know about you, but I do not think she looks like a particularly remorseful woman.”

“Because it’s not all Neo.” Ruby joined in on the hushed conversation. “You know she’s got all that Cinder crap inside of her.”

“That’s no excuse, Ruby.” Blake now felt the need to add their two lien. “If Neo can’t control any… murderous impulses she has, it doesn’t matter if they’re from her or from this remnant of Cinder. She still killed and has shown no guilt for it.”

“Don’t you think you’re being a little hypocritical, Blake, after everything with Adam?”

“That was a different situation.” Yang defended Blake quickly. “And Adam was a fucking asshole who deserved everything that he got.”

“Exactly. Not every situation is cut and dry.” Weiss sighed and cast a glance at Neo, who gave no indication that she was listening to the conversation. “We only just got her back, I don’t want to cast her out. I’m not losing her, not again.”

Blake and Yang exchanged uneasy glances, but nodded. “Fine, we’ll talk to her.” Yang said quietly. “From a pragmatic standpoint, it is for the best that we keep her close anyway. We don’t want Salem’s side getting the Maiden powers back.”

Weiss wasn’t too pleased that Yang had to rationalise the decision, but she wasn’t going to force the issue either. They finally arrived at their room and Neo was the first one in, claiming one of the desk chairs and spinning around in it whilst waiting for the others to come in and shut the door behind them.

“Okay, Neo, we’ve got some time now, so we need you to tell us exactly what’s been going on with you since we arrived in Mantle.” Ruby said once the door was shut and locked.

_ ‘There’s not really much to tell. I spent most of the time on the move and trying to find out where you’d been taken.’  _ Neo explained, bringing her chair to a halt.

“And how exactly did you find that out?” Weiss hated to ask, especially when she could guess the answer.

_ ‘Kidnapped a couple of guys who worked in Atlas detentions, interrogated them and then killed them when I was done.’  _ Weiss hated how nonchalant Neo was being about this and she was forced to suppress a groan.

“Was it really necessary to do that?”

_ ‘Of course. If you leave someone alive, you never know when they’ll be found and give you away. Dead bodies don’t talk.’ _ The lack of emotion from Neo seemed to push Ruby over the edge and she kneeled down in front of Neo, eyes watery.

“Neo, are you not paying attention to what you’re saying?” She pleaded, resting her hands on Neo’s knees. “These are people’s lives we’re talking about. It’s a big deal. How can you be so casual about it?”

_ ‘Because it isn’t a big deal?’  _ Neo seemed genuinely confused by Ruby’s distress, and even a little upset by it.  _ ‘You weren’t this upset about Cinder.’ _

“Because…” Ruby looked to the others for help. “Why was killing Cinder okay?” 

“Because Cinder was an enemy combatant who has tried to kill us several times.” Yang spoke up, walking closer to Neo. “Not some random person who didn’t deserve it.”

Neo let out a raspy snort of disbelief at Yang’s suggestion.  _ ‘If you knew the sort of person who goes into corrections, you’d understand that they definitely deserve it.’ _

“I don’t understand ASL yet.” Neo rolled her eyes and gestured for Weiss’ scroll which she handed over.

‘Trust me, everyone I eliminated deserved it. Especially the SDC executives.’ She typed out and showed to them before pausing to examine the new design of scroll with interest.

“And why did you ‘eliminate’ them?” Blake asked, trying their best to sound neutral.

‘Because they were terrible people who deserved it, and as a favour to Weiss.’ The others all looked at Weiss in shock, and she raised her hands defensively.

“I never asked for that.” She said quickly, shooting Neo a look. “You thought I would appreciate you assassinating SDC executives?”

‘Given that they’ve been responsible for the oppression of not just the Faunus, but pretty much everyone who lives in Mantle, I’d say Remnant’s a better place without them.’ Neo said dispassionately, though she still seemed a little upset at how Ruby was taking things. ‘All these Atlesians hoarding wealth and power whilst the little people starve, it’s a disgrace.’

“It is, but I never asked for these men to be killed.” Weiss reiterated, but Neo gave her an odd look.

‘That’s not what you said when you asked me to help you kill Jacques Schnee.’ Any of Weiss’ further protests died in her throat and she looked down as she awaited her judgement.

“You asked her to help you with that, Weiss?” Blake asked quietly and Weiss nodded. “But why?”

“You know full well why.” She muttered, not looking up. “The man is a monster. He mutilated me, ruined my mother and sister’s lives and had my father murdered.”

“But-.”

“And I don’t want to hear anything from you about it, Blake.” Weiss cut the cat Faunus off. “Not after that vow you made to Sienna.” Blake closed their mouth silently, leaving the group in awkward silence until Ruby broke it.

“...We’re supposed to be the heroes though.” She mumbled, still crouched on the floor. “Heroes don’t kill people. We’re supposed to save them.”

“Life isn’t a fairytale, Ruby, we-.”

“I know that!” Ruby shot to her feet and glared at Blake. “I know that life is shit and the world’s messed up, but is it so wrong that I want to try to make the world a better place by being a hero?”

Without waiting for any of them to respond, Ruby spun on her heel, marched over to the wardrobe and flung it open. “We’re done talking about all this, if Neo’s not confessing, then we’re not telling anyone, even if what she did was wrong.” She looked over her shoulder at the others, who all nodded slowly. “Right, we need to get dressed and meet Clover in the briefing room.”

Without another word, Ruby grabbed her clothes and vanished into the bathroom. None of the others spoke as they too gathered up their things, too stunned by Ruby’s outburst to comment upon it, though Neo looked more confused than shocked.

After several minutes of shuffling bathroom occupancy, they were all dressed in their hunting outfits, except for Neo who was still in the clothes she’d borrowed from Weiss. Weiss had wanted to hug Ruby, to reassure her that everything was alright, but Ruby had remained resolutely silent as she spiked her hair up as she did every morning.

As they left for the briefing room, they ran into Jaune and his partners on their way there as well. Oscar wasn’t included in the morning briefings, he had his own specialized schedules. “Hey, weird morning, huh?” Jaune said, still looking rather sleepy. “Wonder what that high alert was about.”

“That would have been this one.” Yang spoke for them when Ruby didn’t answer, and she pushed Neo forward a little, the pastel girl grinning and waving hello to the others.

“Neo’s back?!” Nora shrieked, leaping forward and pulling her into a hug. “Why did no one tell us?”

“We’ve been busy.” Yang’s tone was rather brusque, and thankfully Jaune picked up on it and didn’t ask any other questions. Nora, on the other hand…

“Why are y’all being so grumpy? I would’ve thought you’d all be glad Neo’s back.” She looked at them all, but no one answered. Weiss wasn’t even sure how she could. Her joy at having her girlfriend back was tempered and tainted by the conversation they’d just had and how Neo had acted.

A small dark part of her whispered that maybe Neo was too far gone, that Cinder’s influence had taken root and there was no bringing back the girl she’d fallen in love with. Weiss stamped down on that part of her psyche. Neo was Neo, and she loved her no matter what.

There was some scattered conversation between the others about banal and mundane things, like what coffee Jaune intended to try today. If there was one good thing to say about the Atlesian Military, they knew their coffee and ensured that their hunters were well stocked.

Clover and the other Ace Ops were already waiting for them in the briefing room, as well as Qrow, who glanced back and groaned when he saw Neo with them. “Looks like the half-pint finally got here, then.” He drawled, out only to be jabbed lightly in the shoulder by Clover, who gave Neo a warm smile.

“Glad to have you on board, Miss Neopolitan. I’m Clover.” He stuck out a hand, which Neo took a little warily. “It’s good to know our missing Maiden is safe again.” Once Neo was released from the handshake, she turned to Weiss.

_ ‘They know?’  _ She asked, eyes wide.

“They already knew about the Maidens when we got here, keeping that you’re the Fall Maiden from them would have been counterproductive.” Weiss shrugged, taking her seat beside Ruby.

_ ‘Well, I suppose it could be worse.’  _ Neo said, her shoulders rising and slumping in an affectation of a sigh.  _ ‘So what do we do now?’  _ Weiss glanced around at the Ace Ops, who were all looking at Neo with a mixture of curiosity and confusion and she sighed.

“None of you know ASL, do you?” They all shook their heads, and Neo broke into a wide grin before signing a few very rude and anatomically improbable things.

“She just insulted us, didn’t she?” Marrow groaned, shaking his head whilst Neo gave him an angelic smile. Clover, meanwhile, had an odd look on his face as he looked down at Neo.

“You know, the science of prostheses has come a long way in the last couple of years, I’m sure if you talked to Dr Polendina, he could get you set up with something. Make communication easier.” Neo positively glowered at the man’s suggestion, her signs sharp with irritation.

_ ‘This is how I speak, and I’m not about to change it.’ _ She told him before folding her arms pointedly, and Clover looked to Weiss helplessly.

“She’s not interested in any prosthesis.” Weiss translated for Clover’s benefit, and he nodded with a small frown.

“Alright, then.” He turned and walked over to the screens at the front of the room, bringing up the holographic screen at the front of the room. “We need to debrief you on what happened during your absence, but that can wait. Right now we need to get you up to speed on the plan.”

_ ‘Oh, yes, I would love to know what’s been going on that’s been so vitally important that Mantle’s been neglected to the point of ruin.’  _ Weiss was always amused by how Neo was able to convey things like sarcasm so effectively with nothing but a few hand gestures. Nobody else seemed to pick up on it though, and Clover continued, tapping the screen a few times and bringing up the plans for the Amity Communication Tower.

“For the past week, we’ve been working on this, a new communication tower based on Amity Coliseum.” Clover gestured to various bits of the diagram. Neo’s attention was actually held by this, and she leaned forward in her chair interest, looking intently at the screen. “We have cleared a Dust mine out in the tundra and have been using it as both a forward base for our operations as well as for supplies.”

_ ‘Supplies? For what?’  _ Neo asked and Weiss translated for her, making Clover grin widely.

“We’re going to launch the new communication tower up into the stratosphere, out of the reach of Salem and the Grimm.”

_ ‘You’re kidding, right?’  _ Neo looked between the others.  _ ‘That’s the plan?’ _

“We’ve been assured by the best minds in Atlas that it’ll work.” Ruby said, her voice still a little tight. “Yang and I have looked over Dr Polendina’s numbers too, and it all looks to be correct.”

_ ‘Well, if Dr P’s the one behind it, then it’ll definitely work.’  _ Neo relaxed in her chair a bit and gestured for Clover to continue.

“Right. Currently the construction is on schedule, but any extra help we can get in clearing out Grimm and protecting supply runs is appreciated. I’m sure with those Maiden powers, it’ll be a cinch.” He finished his speech with a dashing grin, though it seemed to be more directed at Qrow than anyone else.

_ ‘Sounds peachy.’  _ Neo was still examining the plans for the communications tower whilst Clover pulled up the mission board on a separate screen.

“Alright, let’s get you all assigned for today. Ruby, you’re with me, Qrow and Penny. We're doing another supply run to Amity.”

“Why is Penny coming with us?” Ruby asked, eyebrows knitting in confusion.” Isn’t she supposed to stick with the city?”

“She requested this job, something about wanting to get out a bit more.” Clover shrugged, moving down the list. “Blake, Yang, you’re with Marrow and Hare. There’s been some Beowolves moving in towards the mine.”

“You got it, boss.”

“Nora and Ren, you’re on Mantle’s perimeter patrol again. Sorry I couldn’t get you anything more exciting.”

“Nah, we’re good.” Nora reassured Clover with a lazy grin. “We make our own excitement.”

“If you say so...” Clover scrolled down the board a little further. “Jaune, you, Elm and Vine are free to do whatever you guys want. There’s a few floating contracts if you want to look over them in a bit, but there’s nothing all that urgent right now.” The three made various noises of assent and started looking over their scrolls.

“Um, what’s my assignment?” Weiss asked tentatively as Clover started to wrap things up.

“Oh, right. Since you can translate for her I need you to fully debrief Miss Neopolitan, show her round the base and get her acquainted with everything.” Clover said, pulling out his scroll and tapping it. “I’ve sent you a list of stuff that needs doing for her to get cleared for missions.”

“Alright.” Weiss pulled out her own scroll and looked down the list Clover had sent her. It looked to be pretty much the same as what they’d had to do when they’d first gotten there, though Neo also had a physical examination listed in addition to the other tasks. “Do you know if the General intends to license Neo as well?”

“I’m not sure about that. You’ll have to ask him or Specialist Schnee.” Weiss nodded as Clover tucked his scroll away and gestured for Ruby and Qrow to go with him. Slowly, the others filed out of the room, leaving Weiss and Neo alone together.

_ ‘Do I really have to go through all this stuff to be cleared for missions?’ _ Neo asked indignantly, looking down the list for herself.

“We had to go through the same thing too.” Weiss said mildly, not wanting to antagonise her girlfriend.

_ ‘Well, maybe I don’t want to be cleared for missions.’  _ Neo folded her arms stubbornly as Weiss gave her a look.

“That’s not what you said when we were back in Mistral.” She pointed out. “You were perfectly happy to join us out in the field back then.”

_ ‘Back then we weren’t working for a fascistic regime.’ _

“No, but we were working for a traitor.” Weiss reminded Neo with a shake of her head. “Why are you so resistant to working with Ironwood?”

_ ‘I just said, it’s aiding a regime that’s oppressing the people of Mantle.’  _ Neo reiterated, frowning.  _ ‘Atlas elites sitting on the top, not caring about the people they tread on below. I would rather burn them and their ivory towers to the ground than work for them.’ _

“You never seemed to care before about the plight of the downtrodden and never quite so violently.” Weiss frowned darkly as well. She was getting very worried about Neo’s current propensity for violence. “Why now?”

_ ‘I… I don’t know.’  _ Neo admitted, her fingers hesitating and twisting uncomfortably around her words.  _ ‘I never liked Atlesian society, but I always just sort of kept my head down and tried to survive. Now it just feels right to burn it all.’ _

This was too much for Weiss. She may have tacitly approved of Neo’s other actions, but this was getting to be concerning. “Neo, have you considered that maybe Cinder’s soul might be affecting you more since you’ve been on your own?”

Neo’s face blanched at Weiss’ suggestion and her eyes widened with fear.  _ ‘No, that’s not true. I’m still me, I have it under control.’ _

“Neo, you just admitted that you don’t know where these impulses are coming from.” Reaching out, Weiss placed a comforting hand on Neo’s knee. “I’m just worried about you. We all are.”

_ ‘Is that why Ruby was so upset earlier?’  _ Neo asked.  _ ‘Because she thinks Cinder’s soul has taken over me or something?’ _

“No, she doesn’t think that, Süße.” Weiss deflected just a little. This was not something she wanted to get back into right now. “Like I said, she’s just worried about you, and we’ve missed you.” Neo nodded, not looking entirely convinced so Weiss pushed on. “Look, one of the things we need to do to get you approved for active duty is a visit to the psychiatrist. Perhaps they’ll be able to help.”

_ ‘Somehow I doubt that.’  _ Neo continued to frown, uncertainty written all over her face.  _ ‘I am going to be okay, right?’ _

“Of course you are.” Weiss said firmly, getting to her feet and waiting for Neo to do the same. “You’re my otter, and I’m not letting you drift off again.” Rolling her eyes at Weiss’ admittedly rather sappy comet, Neo got up and pulled her into a tight hug before releasing her to speak.

_ ‘I missed you so much, Snowflake.’  _ She said with a small smile.  _ ‘Let’s go get me sorted out and officially licensed, then.’ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are starting to fray and that's never a good sign. Neo definitely seems to getting something more from that little bit of Cinder than just murderous impulses and manipulative urges. Makes you wonder what might have happened if Cinder's hatred of Atlas elites had been channelled a little more positively.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being amazing at it. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being so encouraging.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	40. Chapter 40

Weiss had no idea what was going on behind the closed door of Dr Shale’s office, but she shuddered to think what could be happening between Neo and the psychiatrist. She’d initially offered to stay in the room to act as Neo’s translator, but the doctor had refused, citing doctor-patient confidentiality.

So now Weiss had to wait awkwardly for Neo to finish. She did vaguely wonder why Dr Shale didn’t have some kind of waiting room. Perhaps Atlas’ hunters were the pinnacle of mental health and they just weren’t all that needed.

Of course, if that were true, then Weiss shouldn’t really be counted among their number with how much there was weighing on her mind. She’d hoped that Neo’s return would take at least some of the weight off her mind, but it only seemed to have increased the strain she was under. She had to keep so many secrets now and from so many people.

Fortunately, Weiss was distracted from the weight of the knowledge as the doctor’s door opened and Neo skipped out, accompanied by Dr Shale.

“So, what’s the verdict?” Weiss asked anxiously, kicking away from the wall and approaching the two.

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that, Miss Schnee. Confidentiality.” The doctor said in a quiet tone, their eyes flicking over Neo. “But do rest assured that I’ll be sending the General my report posthaste.” Nodding in understanding, Weiss offered a hand to Neo and left the doctor to return to his office, whilst they departed for the next stop on their itinerary, Dr Polendina’s lab.

“How did it go?” Weiss asked once they were out of earshot of Dr Shale’s office.

_ ‘Fine, I think.’  _ Neo shrugged, frowning a little.  _ ‘They made me look at a bunch of pictures of spilled ink and asked what I saw in them.’  _ Neo’s frown twisted into an evil grin that immediately made Weiss worried.

“Neo, what did you say?”

_ ‘I only told them the truth, I saw blood spatter patterns, dead bodies in pools of blood. You know, the usual.’  _ It took Weiss a couple of moments to pick her jaw up off the floor.

“Neo, you didn’t!”

_ ‘Sure did.’  _ Neo’s grin faded a little at the expression on Weiss’ face.  _ ‘What’s wrong?’ _

“Neo, are you trying to get yourself locked up or something?” Weiss asked with no small amount of horror.

_ ‘No?’ _

“Then why would you answer things like that to a psychiatric evaluation?!” Weiss demanded, stopping in the middle of the corridor and glaring at Neo. “They’re supposed to be working out if you’re stable enough for active duty. If you tell them that all you see are dead bodies, how does that look to them?”

_ ‘Not very good.’  _ Neo admitted, her head starting to droop with shame.

“Exactly!” Weiss wanted to start pacing in frustration, but she kept her cool as best as she could and stayed put. “They’re already wary of you because of your past, and you hold more power in your little finger than all of them combined. If they think you’re mentally unstable, how do you think they’ll react?”

_ ‘Lock me up?’  _ Neo suggested, her face blanching at the idea.

“At the very least.” Weiss sighed deeply and buried her face in her hands. “Neo, what on Remnant possessed you to do something like that if you knew this would be where it led?”

_ ‘In my defence, I didn’t think it would be that serious.’  _ Neo tried to justify her poor decision.  _ ‘I thought it might just mean that I wouldn’t get approved for active duty and made into a huntress.’ _

Weiss blinked in confusion. “I thought we’d sorted that out. Even if we don’t like who we’re working for, we just have to do it.”

Neo didn’t answer for a moment and when she did her hands were slightly shaky.  _ ‘That’s not why I threw the tests.’ _

“Then why did you?”

_ ‘... I’m not a hero, Snowflake, I told you before.’  _ Neo signed haltingly.  _ ‘I’m not like you and Ruby and all the others. I’m not a good person, the time away from you certainly proved that, and I certainly don’t deserve to be a huntress.’ _

“Oh…” Weiss felt her heart sink just a little as she looked down at her girlfriend, who looked a lot less like the confident avenger of the lower classes of earlier that morning and more the unsure young woman she was.

_ ‘I shouldn’t be made a huntress. It’s not for someone like me.’ _ Neo reiterated before letting her hands drop to twist uncomfortably.

“Neo, I’m sorry.” Weiss reached out to run a comforting hand over Neo’s arm. “You’re a good person, I know you are, and you deserve to be recognised for it.”

_ ‘I’m not though.’  _ Neo tried to protest, but Weiss wasn;t having it.

“Yes, you are!” Weiss insisted. “I love you, and I would hope that you know me well enough to know I wouldn’t fall for some criminal lowlife.” She sniffed haughtily, before running her hands comfortingly over Neo’s shoulders. “Even if you don’t fit Ruby’s mould of a knight in shining armour, you’re still a good person.”

Neo didn’t respond verbally, instead she launched herself forwards and wrapped Weiss in a tight hug that knocked the wind out of her with its suddenness. Weiss gently patted Neo on the top of her hat, which she’d refused to part with, even though the rest of her clothes were being washed, before gently peeling her girlfriend away from her torso.

“Okay, we’ve still got quite a few things to do.” She told Neo, continuing her walk towards Dr Polendina’s lab with her in tow. The shorter woman seemed to have cheered up a fair amount after Weiss’ reassurances, though she still wasn’t quite back to her usual bubbly self.

Soon enough, they were standing outside Dr Polendina’s lab and Weiss was about to knock when Neo caught her hand. “What’s wrong?”

_ ‘Do we have to talk to Dr P?’ _ Neo asked, looking slightly anxious.  _ ‘Isn’t there someone else?’ _

“He’s going to get you outfitted with a new scroll and any changes you need to your weapons.” Weiss tilted her head curiously. “Why don’t you want to see him? Is it because you used to know him?”

_ ‘You know about that?’  _ Neo’s eyes were wide with shock.

“Nora worked it out.” Weiss admitted. “I was so worried for you I was taking pretty much any lead anyone had, and Nora suggested that he’s how you learned ASL.”

_ ‘Yeah, he helped me after my… injury, taught me how to talk again.’ _ Neo’s signs were hesitant and unsure.  _ ‘I’m not sure how thrilled he’ll be when he finds out after I left Mantle I ended up as a criminal.’ _

“I’m sure he’d understand why you did those things.” Weiss assured Neo. “He knows how hard it is for people in Mantle.”

_ ‘And after? All that time I spent with Roman?’ _

“He’ll understand.” Weiss said firmly, before knocking on the door. “Though it might be best if you don’t bring it up unless he specifically asks.” There was a faint call for them to enter the room, and Weiss led the way inside to find Dr Polendina at one of his workbenches, fiddling with some kind of mechanical device.

Upon hearing them enter, he looked up from his work and adjusted his glasses as he saw the two visitors. “Ah, Miss Schnee, I got a message I was supposed to expect you and the Fall Maiden.” He peered curiously at Neo as the two of them approached him. “So this is your missing girlfriend, eh? It’s been a long time, Anise.”

Neo blushed deeply before signing to the older man.  _ ‘I go by Neopolitan now. Anise… is not who I am anymore.’ _

“Of course. It’s nice to meet you properly, Miss Neopolitan.” Dr Polendina leaned forward to shake Neo’s hand, which she accepted, still a little nervous, as evidenced by how quickly she pulled back once she was done.

“We’re supposed to be getting Neo properly outfitted, I believe?” Weiss interjected in an attempt to move past the awkward silence. “Something about a new scroll?”

“Among other things.” Dr Polendina nodded, walking his chair over to another workbench with Weiss and Neo in tow. “Here we go. Latest generation, more compact than the previous ones.” He picked up the small sliver of metal and handed it over to Neo, who inspected it carefully before laying it down so she could talk.

_ ‘Does it have a port compatible with the last generation’s data card?’ _

“Why, yes, just here.” Dr Polendina picked up the scroll and opened up a tiny port on the side as Neo rummaged around in the band of her hat before pulling something out of it.

“You seriously keep things in your hat?” Weiss asked incredulously as Neo slotted the card into the new scroll and after a few moments nodded in satisfaction as all her old photos and contacts were successfully installed.

_ ‘It’s where I keep all my most important things.’  _ Neo smirked once she’d put her new scroll away before running a meaningful finger over the feather that was still tucked into the band from Menagerie, making Weiss blush furiously.

“I see you’re a sensible young woman, keeping hold of your old data card.” Dr Polendina commented approvingly. “Now, I can also start getting you kitted out with upgrades to your hunting gear and your weapons.” Pulling out a tablet scroll, Dr Polendina started flipping through various menus. “I understand from Miss Rose that you wield a pistol and sword, is that correct?”

_ ‘Well, the sword is concealed in a parasol, but other than that, yes.’  _ Neo confirmed as Dr Polendina’s eyes lit up as he seemed to remember something.

“Oh, yes, I also got a message from Specialist Ebi, something about vocal implants.” Neo’s expression hardened at the mention and she signed angrily.

_ ‘I asked for no such thing. This is how I talk now. It took me years to get used to it and I am not about to change it.’  _ Instead of being offended by Neo’s harsh words, however, Dr Polendina simply nodded in agreement.

“I suspected as much, but for the sake of practicality, might I offer an alternative solution?” Neo’s eyes remained narrowed, but she nodded, so Dr Polendina reached over and picked up what appeared to be a pair of gloves. “Once I knew you were coming, I pulled this old project out of storage. I thought you might find it useful.”

Taking the proffered gloves, Neo inspected them carefully before pulling them on. They looked similar enough to her usual pair, though they had odd lines running over the backs of the fingers with small circles at each knuckle point.

“The fit could be a bit better, but I can sort that out no problem. Just give me a moment…” Dr Polendina’s chair walked him over to his computer where he typed out a few things. “Okay, give them a go, say something.”

Rather baffled, Neo raised her hands and started signing. “What are the-.” She stopped in shock mid sign as a voice spoke out from Pietro’s computer.

“Good! They seem to be working well!” Dr Polendina smiled broadly as he typed something else out. “I would have tested them myself but...” He waved his hands to demonstrate how large they were in comparison to Neo’s. “Anyway, try something else.”

“These really just say what I sign out loud?” The voice asked as Neo continued to look rather shocked by the devices.

“In essence, yes.” Dr Polendina finished typing and turned to face Neo properly. “I’ve trained them with a fairly large vocabulary of ASL, and you can add more to the database as well. Quite frankly, I’m rather pleased with them.”

Neo nodded thoughtfully, looking down at the gloves and flexing her fingers in them. “It all sounds good, but… I don’t know if this is really who I am.” Neo frowned a little as she elaborated. “I spent most of my life with people being unable to understand what I say unless they go out of their way to learn, and now I can have everyone just understand what I’m saying just like that? It feels… cheap somehow.”

“I understand it’s quite a big change for you, but just think of how useful it would be to be able to have people understand you without having to take the time to type it out or rely on other people to translate for you.” Dr Polendina’s voice was calm and measured, and his words seemed to have an effect on Neo, as her frown lessened a little, but she still looked doubtful.

“It would make things easier for you to communicate with Yang if you didn’t have to keep getting your scroll out.” Weiss chipped in and Neo nodded, though her face soured just a little.

“She could always learn ASL. You and Ruby did.” Neo pointed out.

“We’re your girlfriends, I think it would be considered rude if we didn’t.” Weiss said with a wry smile, but Neo kept frowning.

“Blake learned as well, and they had no other reason to.” Neo continued to frown as she looked down at the gloves and flexed her fingers.

“Neo, if it upsets you this much that Yang hasn’t learned ASL, you can just tell her.” Weiss was more than a little surprised that it did bother Neo so much. She’d never mentioned it before, but it seemed like everything was just spilling out of her today.

“If she was going to learn, she would have asked by now, clearly she doesn’t care enough.” Neo gave the gloves another look. “Maybe I should use these. Hell, maybe even that voice box implant if people are so desperate.”

“Neo, if you don’t want to use them, that’s fine.” Weiss shot a helpless look at Dr Polendina for assistance. “It was only a suggestion.”

“Yeah, well…” Neo flailed, trying to articulate a thought that the interpreter struggled with.  _ ’It’s the principle of the matter.’ _

Weiss was about to respond when her scroll started buzzing insistently. Initially she ignored it as she tried to formulate a response to Neo’s concerns, but it kept ringing incessantly. Shaking her head in exasperation, Weiss pulled out the scroll to see who wanted to speak to her so desperately, and was surprised to see Winter’s name displayed.

She was torn for a moment on whether she should keep trying to help Neo or hear what her sister wanted. Thankfully, she was saved from having to make a decision herself by Dr Polendina who waved at her to take the call whilst he started to sign with Neo, trying to convince her of the merits of his invention.

Leave given, Weiss stepped away and answered her scroll. “Winter, did you need me?”

“Weiss, there you are.” Winter’s voice sounded taut and tense and immediately put Weiss ill at ease. “I need to speak with you, in person and privately.”

“Right now?” Weiss asked, looking back at Neo and Dr Polendina, who were still deep in discussion, the interpreter now silent as they signed to one another.

“Preferably. This isn’t something that should wait.” Winter sounded very insistent, but Weiss still wasn’t quite sure.

“I’m not sure...”

“It’s about Neopolitan.” That sealed it for Weiss. Her sister’s urgent tone worried her enough that she figured she could probably leave Neo with Dr Polendina, at least for a little while.

“Fine, where do you want to meet me?” She asked, already trying to come up with a reason for why she had to leave.

“Sublevel three. I’ll meet you at the lifts.” Winter said and then abruptly ended the call.

_ ‘Who was that?’ _ Neo asked as Weiss returned to the other two.

“It was Winter, she needs to see me urgently.” Weiss said, tucking away her scroll.

_ ‘About what?’  _ Neo looked rather curious about this.

“She didn’t say.” Weiss nearly choked on the lie, small as it may be. “Just that I needed to go talk to her. Will you be alright here with Dr Polendina?” Neo nodded, but she looked more than a little unhappy that Weiss was leaving, though she didn’t protest as Weiss walked purposefully out of the room and headed for the lifts.

She’d rarely descended down into the sublevels, she’d had little need to except for a medical checkup before their initial reclamation of the mine. From what she knew this was where the medical centre was, as well as other important facilities that were best kept out of the way.

The lift came to a halt and the doors opened to reveal a very tense-looking Winter waiting for her. She didn’t say anything, instead turning on her heel and leading Weiss down a sterile corridor and into a small room filled with humming computers.

“What is this about Neo, Winter?” Weiss asked, the moment the door was closed behind them. Her sister’s silence was not doing her already frayed nerves any good.

“I’ve been looking into the deaths in Mantle and I believe I’ve established a connection between some of them.” Winter pulled out her tablet scroll and pulled up a long list of names, showing it to Weiss. “Or to be more accurate, I’ve determined that they aren’t all the work of a single person.”

“Okay…” Weiss could feel her heart starting to beat faster as she quite easily put two and two together. “But what has this got to do with Neo?”

The look her sister gave her told Weiss that she wasn’t fooling anyone, but she seemed to decide to humour her anyway.

“Before you and your group arrived in Atlas, there had been a series of murders of some of the General’s loudest critics. An obvious attempt to frame us as silencing dissidents.” She sniffed derisively. “After you arrived, however, there were several more murders, though assassination might be a more accurate term.” Weiss was definitely starting to sweat now. Winter was getting uncomfortably close to the reality and Weiss had no idea how to deflect her, or even if she could.

“To anyone just giving them a cursory glance, one might dismiss them as more of the same, though I don’t know how, and evidently the Mantle PD requires better training.” Another snort of derision. “But anyway, in amongst the already established pattern of dissidents going missing there are seven that don’t match the profile.” Winter highlighted seven names on her tablet. “Three members of the Atlesian military, and four members of the SDC.”

“Right. I still don’t see what this has to do with Neo.”

“Weiss, please don’t pretend. Your attempts at faking ignorance are embarrassing the both of us.” Winter gave Weiss a hard look. “You and I both know that Neopolitan was the perpetrator of these seven murders, the soldiers in an effort to locate you and the SDC executives presumably out of a sense of misplaced justice on your behalf.”

Weiss wasn’t sure what to say. She considered trying again to dissuade Winter from this notion, but one look at her sister’s face told her that wasn’t going to work. Sighing deeply, she hung her head.

“You’re right, I suspected it as well when I heard and Neo confirmed it this morning.” fear started to fill Weiss’ chest and she looked up at her sister in a panic. “Are you going to tell Ironwood and get Neo locked up?”

There was a quiet groan from Winter and she rubbed at her temples. “I almost wish you were a better liar, Weiss, then we could have avoided this.” Weiss didn’t point out how good she was at lies of omission by keeping everyone’s secrets for them as Winter continued. “I hope you realise how much of a difficult position I’m in right now.”

“If nobody else has worked it out, then surely it’s fine.” Weiss tried to insist. “We just don’t tell anyone. Neo certainly doesn’t plan to.”

“What a surprise.” Winter rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Weiss, I can’t just keep this from the general. It’s the right thing to do, and It would be wrong to keep it a secret.”

“Is it the right thing to do though? Or what Ironwood thinks is right?” Weiss argued, though her heart wasn’t quite in it. She didn’t want to be fighting with her sister already. “We all think we’re doing the right thing, but really we’re just looking out for ourselves and our secrets.” Weiss spat out the last word bitterly, all the secrets that everyone else had forced her to keep weighing heavier than ever.

“What the General is doing is right, and he’s not keeping any secrets, not from me.” Winter said assuredly, earning her a sceptical look from Weiss.

“How can you be sure?” Weiss asked quietly. Winter didn’t answer, her face twisting into a frown before she walked over to the door.

“Come with me, I have something to show you.” Weiss followed Winter out of the room and down the corridor. “It’s fortunate I chose this floor to meet you on, makes this a rather short trip.” They descended a few flights of stairs and entered into one was clearly one of the medical facilities. Somehow it was even more sterile than the rest of the academy.

There were still personnel wandering around the corridors down here, as well as an abundance of security cameras and Atlesian Knights patrolling. However, as Winter led Weiss through another door and down another, smaller flight of stairs, something in the atmosphere changed.

There were no more people and somehow even more cameras, which tracked their every move. At the end of the corridor there were two doors, guarded by no less than four Knights.

“Just through there.” Winter pressed the pad on the side of one of the doors and gestured Weiss into the room whilst she went to the other door. Hesitantly, Weiss entered and found herself in a dimly lit room. There were no furnishings, and the only thing of note was a window set in the wall.

Weiss approached the window and looked through to see Winter entering a room that looked like a mix between a bedroom and a kitchen. There was a strange pair of person-sized pods set against a wall, but what caught Weiss’ attention was the old woman sitting up in bed, who Winter approached.

Weiss couldn’t quite make out what was being said between the two, but it was obvious that Winter knew the woman well as she started making a cup of tea for her. It took Weiss far longer than it really should have to realise who this frail old woman was, and her eyes widened as she watched Winter interact with her.

They spent several minutes talking over their cups of tea before Winter bade her farewell and left the room, joining Weiss in the observation room a moment later.

“Is that… the Winter Maiden?” Weiss asked hesitantly and Winter nodded.

“She’s had a long life, but her mind and body are failing her.” Winter said with a hint of a sad frown. “She could pass any day now, and until she does, I’m the only person Fria is allowed to see.”

Another piece slotted in Weiss’ mind and it felt as though a leaden weight had dropped in her stomach.

“He’s chosen you. Ironwood wants you to be the next Winter Maiden.” Weiss looked back through the window at Fria, who somehow looked even more frail than before. “H-How long have you known?”

“Since Beacon fell, when General Ironwood told me everything.” Even though it was just them in the room, Winter still stood straight and to attention. “That’s how I know he hasn’t kept anything from me, unlike you and this business with Neopolitan.”

Whilst Winter had been talking, Weiss had only barely been paying attention, her mind too caught up in the horror of another person she loved taking on the mantle of Maiden and all the responsibilities and dangers that came with it. But she definitely heard her sister’s last words, and they made her stomach turn.

She couldn’t do this anymore, it was already breaking her and the words spilled out in a rush.

“Salem can’t be killed.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was bound to happen sooner or later, there's only so much Weiss can deal with before it all becomes too much. It is unfortunate that it happened in this way though, there's going to be so much fallout from all of this. In the meantime, Neo might be understood by everyone and the attendant issues. For someone who can change her appearance at will, Neo puts a lot of stock in her identity and the things she considers to be a part of that. Then again, maybe it's precisely because she can change so easily that she's so determined to hang onto this new identity she constructed for herself.
> 
> Also just a quick side note, I'm taking a break from regular posting next week. I'm getting pretty close to burning myself out working at this pace and I need a bit of a break.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being awesome in general. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and keeping my mood up.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	41. Chapter 41

A long and painful silence stretched between the two sisters as Weiss hung her head and fought back tears.

“She what?” Winter’s voice was deathly quiet, and her tone was unlike any Weiss had ever heard from her sister before.

“Salem is immortal.” Weiss reiterated, her voice rough and choked. “We asked the lamp, it still had questions left, and it told us that Ozpin had been hiding it from us.”

“And you saw fit to hide it from the General? From me?” There was cold betrayal in Winter’s voice now, and Weiss looked up at her sister tearfully.

“It wasn’t my decision. I didn’t want to keep it a secret, we weren’t supposed to be keeping any more secrets, but Ruby told us to.” She pleaded, already feeling the sting of guilt that she was throwing her leader and partner under the bus.

“So you just blindly followed her lead?” Winter asked and Weiss couldn’t tell if she was disgusted or just disappointed. “I expected better from you, Weiss.”

“She’s my team leader and my girlfriend, what else was I supposed to do?” Weiss asked in desperation, needing reassurance from her sister that she hadn’t been doing the wrong thing this whole time.

“Maybe exercise some independence?” Winter suggested coldly. “Weiss, you spent so much of your life trying to forge your own path away from Jacques Schnee’s plans and legacy. Why now would you just blindly follow someone else’s orders if you thought they were wrong?”

“I don’t know…” Weiss didn’t know if she could feel any lower. She didn’t feel the despair she had when she’d learned the truth about the Gods, or the sheer terror of being revealed as a Faunus to the world, but she still felt awful, because this time, it was all her fault.

“You realise I’m going to have to tell the General about this?” Weiss nodded dumbly. She knew better than to try and dissuade her sister from her course of action. She’d already failed when it came to Neo and her recent crimes. “I can’t tell you how he’ll react to you all hiding this information from us, but I can guarantee it won’t be good.”

“I know…” Weiss mumbled, head hung low. She felt like a child again, being scolded for one of her many mistakes.

“It’ll be better for you and everyone else if you tell me anything else you’ve been hiding.” Winter folded her arms and looked down at Weiss expectantly, wings flared intimidatingly. For her part, the younger Faunus was wracking her brains trying to work out how much, if anything, she could tell Winter.

As much as she hated being entrusted with all these secrets, several of them were private and unrelated to this one. She’d already broken Ruby’s trust by revealing Salem’s immortality and she didn’t want to break anyone else’s.

“Not much else.” Weiss answered eventually. “The lamp still has one question this century, and Salem’s immortality wasn’t the only thing it told us about her and Ozpin.”

“What else was there?” Winter’s wings lowered just a little.

“We aren’t the first sentient beings to live on Remnant. Before us, before this version of humanity I should say, since the Faunus didn’t exist back then, there were other Humans, ones who were created by and lived with the Brother Gods.” Winter raised an eyebrow.

“You mean to say that Mother’s religion is right? There actually are gods?”

“It’s my faith too.” Weiss pointed out. “And not so much  _ are  _ as  _ were _ .”

“I don’t understand.” Winter’s brows now knit in confusion and Weiss sighed, hating that she had to recount this again.

“Salem and Ozpin were part of this first humanity, they were lovers, and when Ozpin died, Salem declared war on the Gods. So they exterminated all of humanity. All except for Salem, who they cursed with eternal life.” Weiss’ voice was dull as she recounted the horrific deed committed by the beings she used to revere. She may have been able to reconcile her faith back in Argus, but it still stung.

“Oh…” Winter at least had the grace to look apologetic even though she was in the middle of something akin to an interrogation. “I’m sorry. I know I never really bought into all of Mother’s talk of gods, I took more after Kass, but I know it meant a lot to you, and how much it must have hurt to learn that.”

“It wasn’t good.” Weiss agreed, though she felt that was a bit of an understatement on her part. “You’re taking it rather well that the Gods exist, and that we weren’t created by them and are just a cosmic mistake.”

“I was able to accept that magic exists and that I’ve been chosen to hold said magic, the existence of gods isn’t that much of a stretch.” Winter dismissed Weiss’ concern with a wave of her hand. “So Salem was cursed with eternal life and now she wants to destroy all of us? Why?”

“I don’t know.” Weiss admitted, Jinn hadn’t really elucidated on Salem’s motivations. “All we know is that she wants the relics for some reason. Probably because they came from the Gods as well.”

“I see…” Winter sighed, she did not look happy at all about these revelations. “I do wish there was more you could tell me. The more information, the better the General will take this.”

“That’s all there was that’s relevant.” Weiss sighed as well. “I doubt Ironwood is all that interested in how Ozpin and Salem had kids who died.”

“Probably not.” Winter admitted, rubbing her temples. “I do suggest that you inform your team that the General knows about this withheld information so they can fully debrief him. I’m going to-.” Winter was interrupted by a loud and insistent buzzing from her scroll.

Grumbling under her breath, Winter extracted her scroll and looked at the message. Weiss immediately felt a stab of worry as Winter’s face fell. “What’s wrong?”

“I just got a message from the General. He says I need to check the news, something about Jacques making his next move.” Winter was already flipping through her scroll’s apps to open up the Atlas Broadcast Network.

“I have made it no secret that I oppose General Ironwood and his senseless embargo that has been crippling our Kingdom’s economy.” Jacques Schnee’s grating voice rang out from the scroll and Weiss walked around to Winter’s side to see the man standing outside Schnee Manor making his announcement.

“What is he doing?” She asked, brow furrowing in confusion as the man she’d once called father continued.

“If I am elected Councilman, I will be opposing this reckless and, dare I say it, criminal decision. However, as there can be no shipments entering or leaving the Kingdom, I have had to make several tough decisions. Ones that have been hard on my family as well as the rest of you.”

“He doesn’t look too hard done by.” Weiss scoffed, but she was shushed by Winter.

“Effective immediately, I have been forced to shut down all non-essential SDC operations.”

“He what?!” Weiss gasped and Winter looked just as shocked and horrified.

“If elected to the council, I will make sure that I will fix what General Ironwood has done, but-.” The broadcast was shut off mid sentence by Winter, who continued to glare daggers at her scroll, her hands shaking in anger.

“Just what does he think he’s doing? Holding the Kingdom to ransom over an election?!” She hissed, her wings flapping in agitation behind her as another message came in from the General. Weiss was unable to read what it said as Winter started stalking the room.

“How can he even run for this election?” Weiss asked. She hadn’t been paying as much attention to Atlas politics since she got her as she should have been, but she knew Mantle’s seat on the Council was up for election. “It’s for Mantle, not Atlas!”

“No doubt he got one of his crooked lawyers to work out a thing that allowed him to stand.” Winter hissed as she read the General’s message. “Shit!” Weiss was taken aback, she’d never heard Winter swear before.

“What’s wrong?”

“The General’s getting reports of riots down in Mantle after that broadcast, he needs me to go down and help restore the peace.” She said shortly, tucking away her scroll and marching over to the doorway.

“What do I need to do? How can I help?”

“I think you and your team have helped enough.” Winter told her sister, stopping her dead in her tracks. “I need to go and deal with this, I don’t have time to tell the General of your deceptions. I suggest you go to your team and tell them to come clean before I do. You have until tomorrow morning.”

Without another look at Weiss, Winter marched out of the room, leaving Weiss alone with her thoughts and the swirling darkness they brought.

* * *

None of the rest of Team RYNBW had been requested for quelling the civil unrest. They may be qualified hunters, but apparently dealing with civilian issues like riots required further training. In light of this, Weiss sent them all a message to assemble in their dorm once she’d left Fria’s observation room, and was now waiting nervously for their return.

Blake and Yang were the first to return, hand in hand and looking slightly dishevelled, no doubt from sneaking off for a heated make-out session, as they were wont to do these days. They flashed their anxious teammate a confused look as she sat in one of the chairs, leg bobbing rapidly as her wings flexed, but they said nothing, instead sitting down on one of the bunks to wait for the others.

Ruby was next to arrive and immediately started babbling about getting stopped on the trail out to Amity by Robyn and her Happy Huntresses. Her rapid explanation of what had happened was quickly silenced though by a look from Yang and a pointed head tilt towards Weiss.

A few minutes after Ruby had sat down in one of the other desk chairs, Neo finally arrived, sporting the gloves that Dr Polendina had suggested she use. “He wants me to get used to them.” She said by way of explanation, surprising the others with the sudden vocalisation. “I still need to teach it all the profanities.”

“As much fun as I’m sure you’ll have with that, I’m pretty sure Weiss has been waiting a while for us all to get here so she can tell us what’s up.” Blake said diplomatically, cutting off any further chatter as she looked over at Weiss, who had only gotten more antsy as time had passed. “Weiss? Why did you want us all here?”

Weiss paused in her leg bouncing, looking around the others nervously before taking a deep breath and letting the words spill out in a rush. “WinterknowsSalemcan’tbekilled.”

“What?” Neo tilted her head in confusion as the others gave Weiss looks of horror and concern.

“Weiss, what did you tell her?” Ruby asked, her voice quiet and Weiss couldn’t tell whether it was from shock or anger.

“I told her that Salem can’t die, about the gods and how they killed the first Humans. I told her everything.” Weiss confessed as she hung her head.

“But why?” Yang asked, brows knitted in confusion. “You and Blake were the ones advocating for us not to tell Ironwood and the others.”

“That was before everything else.” Weiss looked up at the others. “Before everyone else started relying on me to keep all of their secrets as well.” The others looked at each other in confusion, though Yang’s expression showed dawning comprehension. “Everyone was just relying on me to be their confidante, and today I just broke. It was just too much.”

“Weiss, I’m sorry, I had no idea.” Yang was the first to speak, getting up from the bed and moving over to Weiss. “I should have realised.”

“If you had, I wouldn’t have been doing a good job of keeping the secrets.” Weiss pointed out, but Yang shrugged.

“I should have noticed that you were under that much stress.” She said firmly before Ruby cut in.

“What secrets?” Ruby asked, but Blake gave her a look.

“If Weiss could say what they were, we wouldn’t be in this position.”

“Maybe we wouldn’t be in this position if we’d just come clean to Ironwood about Salem’s immortality.” Yang pointed out sourly. “I thought we weren’t supposed to be hiding anything from each other anymore.”

Everyone turned to look at Neo as she let out a snort of derision as she looked at Yang. “Please, one of those secrets is yours. Hypocrisy much?”

“Yang?” Blake and Ruby looked at her in surprise as Yang sighed deeply.

“Neo’s right, I am being hypocritical.” She looked up at Ruby apologetically. “I thought I was protecting you by not saying anything, but really, it was for my benefit.”

“By not saying what, Yang?” Ruby was starting to sound worried and her eyes flickered between Yang and Weiss.

“I didn’t tell you everything that happened down in the vault back in Mistral. “Yang admitted reluctantly. “And I lied about Neo being the only one I found down there. Raven was still there too.”

Ruby looked shocked by this revelation. “But why wouldn’t you tell us that?”

“Because of what I said to her to convince her to let us take the relic.” Yang sighed again, folding her arms protectively in front of herself. “I didn’t say because I thought you’d feel guilty, even though it’s not your fault.” She took a deep breath before she ploughed on. “Raven couldn’t give a shit about me, but she does care about you, a lot in fact.”

“I-I don’t understand.” Ruby looked more confused than ever and Blake didn’t look much better off either.

“Raven loved Mom, but they broke up because of Ozpin and his secrets. To her, I’ve always been this drunken mistake, whilst you were the child she and Mom were supposed to have together.”

Weiss hated to see the mix of emotions on Ruby’s face, the predicted guilt combined with more confusion and shock. “But she doesn’t even know me.”

“That doesn’t matter. She’s so stuck on Mom, on the past, that she just doesn’t give a shit about anything else other than preserving you as the last piece of Mom on Remnant.” Yang looked away and Weiss was fairly certain she was fighting back tears. “So I convinced her to let us have the relic so we could use it to protect you. She made me promise that I would do anything, even sacrifice myself, to keep you safe.”

Ruby was actually crying now as well, tears silently tracking their way down her face. “I-I’m sorry, Yang.”

“Don’t be, I told you it’s not your fault, and this is precisely why I didn’t want to tell you.” Yang sighed deeply. “I should have though, we agreed that we weren’t going to hide things.”

“I know, I know.” Ruby swiped at her tears with her sleeve before looking back at Weiss. “So you’ve been keeping lots of secrets like that all bottled up?” Weiss nodded silently.

“People always have a reason for keeping things a secret, I just don’t know why they all decided to rely on me to keep them as well.” She said, her voice slightly cracked and tired. “I’m sorry I told Winter about Salem.”

“It’s okay, Weiss.” Ruby reassured her, reaching out to pull her into a hug. “We were going to have to say something sooner or later.”

“I assume that she’s going to tell the General.” Blake added, watching the proceedings with a small frown.

“She gave us until tomorrow to tell him. She’s busy with the riots.” Weiss said and Blake groaned quietly.

“I’m sure the General will love being told we’ve been lying to him whilst he’s busy trying to quell civil unrest. Unrest that’s not entirely unjustified.” They grumbled, and Weiss silently agreed with their position, despite knowing that it had been goaded by Jacques Schnee and had probably been both anticipated and planned for by him, though she wasn’t sure how it played into his plans.

“We should still tell him, it’ll sound better if it comes from us as voluntary information.” Ruby said, seeming to settle upon this as a plan. “Will Winter tell him that she practically threatened us to get us to tell him?”

“Probably not.” Weiss said, a little relieved that she wasn’t getting a double dose of disappointment today. “My sister is a great many things, but spiteful is not one of them.”

“Okay, then. I’m going to send a message to the others letting them know that I’m going to tell Ironwood.” Ruby announced decisively, pulling out her scroll and starting to type out a message, before Weiss remembered something else.

“Winter also knows about Neo’s murders down in Mantle.” Ruby froze in the middle of typing out her message whilst Neo gave her an appraising look.

“You didn’t tell her, did you?”

“No, I didn’t. She worked it out for herself.” Neo nodded, but she did not look happy.

“I suppose she’s also going to tell General Fascist about that too.” Weiss nodded sadly, and Neo let out a wheezy groan. “Great. I guess I should probably go along with Ruby and throw myself on his tender mercies, then.”

“I don’t think it’ll be too bad.” Yang said, trying to sound optimistic. “I mean, you are the Fall Maiden, we need you, so that should probably help.”

“Maybe.” Neo still looked unhappy with the situation. “Or he’ll just use it to try to get me even further under his thumb. I’ve known men like Ironwood, they don’t like what they can’t control, and I’m far too much of a wildcard for his liking.”

“Well, we’ve got to make the best out of this, and coming clean to him is what we have to do.” Ruby sighed as she finished typing out the message. “Do any of you want to come with me?”

Weiss shook her head. “I think I’ve had enough disapproval from authority figures today.” She explained quietly, and Ruby nodded, giving her a quick hug.

“I understand. Blake, Yang?” The other two exchanged a glance before getting up.

“Yeah, we’ll come with, present something of a united front.” Yang said, flashing Weiss a look. “Are you going to be okay on your own, Weiss?”

“I’ll be fine.” Weiss reassured them, and with a goodbye hug from Neo, they trooped out of the room to give the General the bad news. Once they’d been gone for a little while, Weiss pulled out her own scroll and sent off a message.

‘Can we talk please? I don’t think I can not tell Ruby about you anymore.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That could have gone a lot worse, not that it went well though and I'm sure Winter's words about exercising independence won't come to bite her in the ass later. Hopefully, things with Ironwood won't go too badly, but knowing him, there's not much hope of that. At least Weiss has been able to get some of the stuff off her chest, though she's still got that whole thing about Not-Penny weighing upon her. 
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being hella cute. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being an amazing girlfriend.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.


	42. Chapter 42

“I hope you all understand exactly how difficult of a position you’ve put me in.” Weiss cowered a little under the General’s harsh tone. She hadn’t heard anything back from Not-Penny yesterday, worrying her quite a lot. What had been even more anxiety-inducing was that General Ironwood wanted to see all of them the next morning.

“Ignoring how you decided to throw my offer of full disclosure in my face, you knowingly decided to hide a murderer in our midst.” He continued to growl as he paced back and forth in front of Team RYNBW. Jaune and the rest of his team stood behind them and Weiss could hear the uncomfortable shifting from them as the other five were reprimanded.

“Technically, you already knew I was a murderer.” Neo pointed out, earning a dark glare from Ironwood.

“Whilst we may have granted you clemency for your previous crimes, these ones you have committed since arriving in Mantle are a different matter.” He said with a long-suffering sigh whilst Weiss shuffled uncomfortably beside her girlfriend.

Unable to look at Ironwood, Weiss looked past him to her sister, who stood behind his desk, arms folded behind her back. Weiss searched her sister’s expression for some hint of sympathy, but found nothing but stern disapproval.

“As if I didn’t have enough to deal with, what with Schnee closing down his stores, and the riots,  _ and _ this election.” Ironwood continued ranting as her paced back and forth, setting Weiss very ill at ease. “Now, not only do I find out that we’re harbouring a criminal. but apparently everything we’ve been working towards has been for nothing!”

“Um, sir?” Ruby spoke up hesitantly as though half expecting to get shouted at. “I don’t believe that the progress we’ve made on Amity Tower has been a waste.” Ironwood paused in his restless walking and looked down at Ruby, but he didn’t reprimand her so she continued.

“Just because Jinn told us that Salem cannot be destroyed doesn’t mean we can’t stop her some other way. And the tower will still help us restore communication across Remnant and help us put up a united front against her and the Grimm.”

“But if there is no clear sight of victory, is there any point to it?” Ironwood’s voice was quiet, and it scared Weiss. She’d never seen the General like this before, and it did not give her any positive feelings at all.

“Because we have to believe that there is.” Everyone looked around as Oscar spoke up. “This was why Ozpin kept this secret from us all, he thought that it would make us lose hope. Do you really want to prove him and his need to keep secrets right?”

Ironwood didn’t answer for several long and painful seconds as he looked at Oscar with narrowed eyes, before sighing deeply.

“No, we’re not here to repeat the mistakes of the past. But you know I cannot let this slide, especially about Miss Neopolitan and her crimes.” Weiss breathed a small sigh of relief as the General appeared to be calming down, though she was still more than a little concerned about Neo.

“What are you going to do, sir?” She asked tentatively as the man rubbed his temples in thought.

“What can I do?” He asked rhetorically, looking between Weiss and Neo. “I can’t exactly afford to have you locked up, not an asset as valuable as a Maiden. Nor do I think I’d be able to keep one imprisoned against her will for very long.”

“What are you going to do, then, sir?” Ruby asked, no doubt just as concerned as Weiss was about her girlfriend.

“For the moment, nothing.” He said, sounding very unhappy with the decision. “There’s too much going on and at stake right now. Mantle is a powder keg waiting to blow and it requires my full attention.” He gave them all a hard look. “But that’s not to say you’re getting off scot free either. You’re all off active duty and confined to the academy until further notice.”

Weiss heard a small noise from Nora as though she was about to protest, but she was cut off by Jaune. “Yes, sir, we understand.”

“Good. Dismissed.” he waved his hand and turned his back on them, leaving the group to slink out of his office.

“Well, that could have gone a lot worse, I guess.” Yang said with some forced cheer. “Getting taken off duty isn’t that bad.”

“Yeah, but who knows what else he intends to do, especially to Neo.” Weiss said morosely as they all trooped towards the lifts.

“He did say he probably wouldn’t be able to keep her incarcerated, so I’m not sure what he could do to her.” Blake reminded her as they got in to head back down to the dorms, no doubt following their girlfriend’s example of trying to keep the mood up.

“Well, whatever it is, it’s deserved.” Weiss blinked a few times and looked at Ren in shock. She wasn’t alone either, pretty much everyone else in the lift was staring at Ren too.

“What?”

“There are laws for a reason. Neo broke them, so she should be punished.” Ren’s tone was calm and measured, belying how callous his words were.

“Ren, Neo’s our friend.” Nora scowled at her boyfriend who returned her look impassively.

“Our ‘friend’ who murdered seven people over the course of approximately a week. We need order and the rule of law, Nora, otherwise things fall apart.” There was something infuriating about how emotionless his tone was, somehow it was even worse than Ironwood’s barely restrained anger. Weiss was about to give Ren a piece of her mind when Yang laid a hand on her shoulder and shook her head, indicating Nora, who looked livid.

“Right, sure, let’s all blindly support all the laws with no regard for whether any of them are right or not!” She said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “Because they’re laws they must be moral and not serve to oppress the underclasses or anything!”

“Not everything is an act of class violence.” Huffing indignantly, Ren looked away from Nora’s angry gaze. “And I never expected you to be advocating so strongly for murder.”

“I’m not.” Nora inisisted. “But we don’t know the circumstances. For all we know, Neo had perfectly valid reasons.” She gave Neo an expectant look, but the short woman simply shrugged as the lift finally came to a halt and they got out.

“They had it coming to them, if that’s what you mean.” She said nonchalantly, which in Weiss’ opinion did not help her case with Ren, who simply gave Nora a look that screamed ‘This is the hill you want to die on?’.

“Just because they ‘had it coming’ doesn’t mean you’re the person who gets to decide how the punishment should be meted out, Neo.” Blake sighed, shaking their head. “I’m all for SDC execs getting their comeuppance for the crimes they’ve committed, but I don’t think death is the punishment that fits the crime here.”

“Look, can we all just stop discussing the morality of what Neo did?” Weiss finally spoke up, tired of how long this debate was going on for. “It’s done, and whatever happens to Neo is currently out of our hands, so can we please just move on?”

There was a pause, then several murmurs of assent with varying degrees of reluctance. Sighing in relief, Weiss let her wings and shoulders slump as the group slowly made their way into one of the common rooms on the level.

“So… since we’re off duty for a while, what should we do?” Ruby asked once everyone had gotten settled, Nora and Ren sitting with a notable gap between them whilst Jaune hovered awkwardly nearby.

“I guess we could do some more training?” He suggested, but that was met with several groans.

“We’ve spent pretty much all our time since we got here either on missions or training.” Yang said, flopping over into Blake’s lap. “Why can’t we just treat this like time off?”

“Because we’re supposed to be being punished?” Ren said rather snippily, earning a glare from Yang.

“Yeah, well, I don’t intend to spend all the time we’re off active duty moping about how we fucked up.” She grumbled, wriggling closer into Blake, who took the hint and started petting her hair. “We promised not to follow Ozpin’s example and we fucked that up and now we’re paying the price. But it’s like Weiss said, it’s done now and we can’t exactly take it back.”

“Yang’s right. Being upset about getting punished isn’t going to change anything.” Ruby agreed with her sister, but Ren simply rolled his eyes.

“Perhaps showing some contrition might be beneficial in indicating to Ironwood that we regret concealing this information from him?” He suggested acerbically, and Weiss could feel the disdain rolling off Neo beside her.

“How does that boot taste?” She snarked at the young man. If the atmosphere in the room hadn’t been tense before, the air practically crackled with it now as Ren glared daggers at Neo. This was possibly the first time Weiss had ever seen Ren angry, and she did not like it.

“Excuse me for remembering that we’re supposed to be the heroes here, not some murderous psychopaths who break the law when it’s convenient.” He growled, eyes flashing dangerously. Weiss’ eyes were caught by a small flicker of movement from Neo as the diminutive woman’s hand drifted to where her weapons usually were. “Ironwood is right, and we made the decision to side with him and his plans. We should follow them.”

Weiss could feel Neo practically vibrating beside her as she prepared her furious rebuttal, but she was cut off by a loud shout from Ruby.

“That’s enough!” Jumping to her feet, She walked into the centre of the room, trembling with repressed rage. “We are not arguing about this anymore. It’s tearing us apart, and I am not having it.”

“So you’re just going to let what he just said slide?” Neo asked, her anger conveyed through the sharpness of her signs rather than the tone of her interpreter.

“I’m not letting it slide, I am putting a final stop to all of this arguing.” Ruby said in a firm tone, glaring at Ren as though daring him to say anything else. He didn’t, however, and after several long moments of silence, Ruby nodded and sat back down, wilting a little.

“... So, I heard there’s a Spruce Willis movie marathon showing in the rec room, followed by the new one. That could be fun.” Oscar suggested, breaking the long and awkward silence.

“I have been wanting to see that.” Jaune nodded, looking to the rest of his team. “Nora? Ren?”

“Sorry, Jaune, I’m going down to Mantle.” Nora announced to a collective groan from everyone else.

“Nora, I know we weren’t going to mope around about getting punished, but do you really think disobeying Ironwood’s direct orders is a good idea?” Yang asked in exasperation.

“I don’t really care if it’s a good idea or not.” Nora shrugged, folding her arms. “I was planning to go down today and if he tries to stop me, I’ll call him out on infringing on my constitutional rights or something.”

“Okay, you’ve lost me there.” Yang sat up, scratching her head. “What exactly does this have to do with constitutional rights?”

“She’s planning on going down to Mantle to vote in the election.” Ren explained wearily, burying his face in his hands. “By law, Ironwood can’t prevent her from going to vote, though whether she is allowed to vote is another matter, since whether Nora is a citizen of Mantle is in question.”

“I am a Mantellian!” Nora huffed, glowering at Ren. “Always have been, always will be.”

“That’s not what’s in question here.” Sighing, Ren looked over at his girlfriend with a tired expression. “You and your parents emigrated, that puts your citizenship in question.”

“Well, I’m still going to go down and try to vote, and then I heard that Robyn Hill’s hosting a victory party, which I’m going to go to.” Nora smirked a little, daring anyone to stop her. Several of the group looked like they wanted to protest her plan, but they all knew Nora well enough by now. If she got an idea into her head, nothing would shift it.

Smirking that nobody had any further protests, Nora got to her feet and stretched out. “I’ll see you all later.” With a wave, she left the room in another awkward silence.

“... I should probably go after her.” Ren said after a little while, getting up as well and leaving quickly too. The remaining seven looked between themselves, before settling on Jaune.

“I don’t think I should get involved in that.” He said, raising his hands as an uncomfortable frown twisted its way across his face. “I think I’m gonna stick with Oscar and watch the movies.” Both Blake and Yang raised matching eyebrows, but said nothing as Jaune and Oscar wandered away.

Once they had left the room, however, Neo spoke up. “Well, that was awkward. I am not touching that rapier wasp nest.”

“Someone should probably go with Ren and Nora, make sure nothing bad happens.” Blake suggested, looking between the others. Nobody volunteered, until Ruby let out a deep sigh.

“I’ll go.” With a small groan, she got to her feet and looked to Weiss. “Weiss?”

“I’m not sure a Schnee attending the victory party for her ‘father’s’ opponent is such a good idea.” Weiss said with a shake of her head. “And I think it would probably be best if I stay here.” She jerked her head towards Neo as subtly as she could.

“Oh, okay.” Weiss winced a little at the disappointment in Ruby’s voice. “I should probably get going to catch up with them. See you later?”

“Of course.” Weiss leaned up to kiss Ruby goodbye, pulling back so Neo could as well. Weiss wasn’t sure if she imagined it, but she could have sworn that Ruby hesitated for just a fraction of a section before returning Neo’s kiss.

Waving her goodbyes to Blake and her sister, Ruby jogged out of the room in pursuit of Nora and Ren, leaving the other four behind.

“So, who’s going to leave next?” Yang asked, clearly trying to inject some levity into those who remained.

“I want to go explore Atlas, I didn’t really get much of a chance before.”

“Neo, I really don’t think that’s a good idea.” Weiss warned, already starting to feel a migraine coming on from everything that had happened. If only she’d been able to tough things out, they wouldn’t be in this position. “Look, I don’t want to stay in the base any more than you do, but Nora, Ren and Ruby have already left. I don’t think we should as well.”

“But it’ll be so boring if we’re stuck up here.” Neo complained, flopping back on the sofa petulantly. “I don’t like being bored.”

“Well, Blake and I do have a standing offer from Team FNKI to hang out.” Yang volunteered as she pulled out her scroll. “I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if you two tagged along. Flynt’s actually pretty cool, and Neon’s… tolerable.”

“I guess it’s something…” Neo didn’t seem too thrilled by the idea, and neither did Blake.

“You say she’s tolerable, but does she really have to dress up like that and pander to the whole cat Faunus thing?” They sighed, rolling their eyes.

“I don’t really see what’s so bad about her dressing the way she wants. I certainly do.” Yang muttered distractedly as she typed out something on her scroll.

“She wears a collar, Yang.” Blake gave them a flat look. “You know how insulting it is for us to be compared to animals, and she’s just inviting such comparisons by doing that.”

“I get where you’re coming from, Blake.” Weiss cut in, hoping to end any argument before it began. “But I don’t think policing how people dress is the most important or helpful thing to the cause.”

“I suppose…” Blake conceded, though they still didn’t look best happy about it. Neo, meanwhile, had stiffened in her seat beside Weiss, and now spoke up again.

“This Neon you’re talking about, ginger cat Faunus with a tail, rollerblades and an obnoxious attitude?”

“That’s the one.” Blake grumbled as Neo’s eyes went wide with nervousness.

“This might be a bit awkward, then.” Her eyes flickered over to Weiss for a moment. “So I may have… slept with her just a little bit during the Vytal Festival.”

There was a moment’s silence in the room before it was broken by a loud snort from Yang. “Are you serious?”

“Look, I wasn’t part of the later rounds, so I was bored and surrounded by cute girls. What else was I going to do?” Neo’s signs were flippant, but she kept throwing nervous glances over at Weiss as she did so.

“Well, you should be fine. I mean, you were in disguise for all of that, weren’t you?” Yang asked, taking the revelation in stride as Neo nodded. “Then there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Out of interest, how many people did you have sex with at the tournament?” Weiss had no idea why Blake was asking this, and it seemed neither did Yang as she shot a small frown at Blake.

“I’m not sure, like five or six?” Neo shrugged, actually blushing now as she refused to meet Weiss’ eyes. “It’s not important right now. Are they okay with us tagging along?”

“Uh, yeah, Flynt said it’s cool.” Yang said, thankfully picking up on the slightly uneasy atmosphere in the room and putting away her scroll. “He and Neon are gonna meet us downstairs.”

“I suppose that’s us sorted for the day, then.” Weiss got to her feet, eager to move away from the lingering tension. As the others made sounds of agreement and got up as well, ready to go meet Neon and Flynt, Weiss pulled out her scroll to check if there was any word from Not-Penny, only to see nothing.

With a deep sigh, Weiss put her scroll away again. Hopefully, Not-Penny would get back to her soon, as this last secret was continuing to weigh her down and Weiss was certain it would be better for all of them once it was finally out in the open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are getting tense again as the plot starts catching up once again. But before everything just goes horribly wrong, we still get a few last bits of levity, including a more solid idea of what Neo got up to during the tournament. Weiss is taking it rather well all things considered, but maybe that's because she's still recuperating from her breakdown in front of Winter. Lots of things going on in people's heads that they really should be more open about.
> 
> I've set up a [discord](https://discord.gg/4t3y25e) so feel free to join and stuff, I'm pretty active there these days.
> 
> Big thanks to [machiavellianFictionist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/machiavellianFictionist) for proofreading and being the best at it. Lots of thanks too to my lovely girlfriend [Ruby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyAndNanaAO3) for beta reading and being so amazingly supportive.
> 
> Thank you too to my official supporters, send a PM or hop on the discord server for details.

**Author's Note:**

> I forgot to link it here before, but I have a [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/apatheticabstractapotheosis) too.


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